The cloud of carbon dioxide that burst out of Lake Nyos in Cameroon and asphyxiated 1,700 people haunts the plans of oil and power companies to bury their greenhouse gases underground. “It was shocking,” said Minoru Kusakabe, a Japanese geochemist who makes regular trips to the site of the 1986 disaster near the border with Nigeria. “The village was completely devastated, and people were in their homes dying.” While the source of the CO2 bubble was natural, originating from volcanic magma deep below the lake, the devastation shows how shifts in the Earth’s crust can trigger worst-case scenarios for the energy industry, just as an earthquake in Japan in March triggered a tsunami that sent a nuclear plant into meltdown. Dispute over who pays for such geological surprises is threatening to derail efforts to combat global warming and put out of reach the $25 billion governments have offered in grants to facilities that would siphon away CO2 from industrial polluters. Such projects are central to curtailing global emissions and building new markets for companies from Alstom SA (ALO) of France to General Electric Co. Oil companies Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. and utilities such as Nuon Energy NV are seeking to tap those funds for carbon capture and storage plants. Insurance companies are dragging their feet in offering coverage against catastrophic accidents.
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