A report released last month by the non-profit Energy Futures Initiative and Stanford University has found that deploying carbon capture and storage would allow the state of California to more economically achieve its goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2045. Using CCS would provide about 15% of the state’s total emissions reductions, and in avoiding additional solar and battery storage installations would be around US$750 million (€633 million) cheaper than a non-CCS solution. One reason is that solar farms and battery storage would require more land than CCS installations, and another is the CCS-friendly federal tax credits currently available – the report estimates that capture and storage could turn a profit even today. The state has storage sites sufficient for 1000 years’ worth of emissions from its 76 largest CO₂ emitters at current rates of emissions, with activities such as ethanol and hydrogen production and oil and gas refineries being some of the most suitable to incorporate CCS. A key assumption in the report, however, was that the state would not use nuclear power, and its interesting conclusions must be seen in that context.