Bill McKibben on BP's influence on Princeton's Wedges paper and the failure of carbon capture

Bill McKibben examines a ProPublica and Drilled investigation into the 2004 'Wedges' paper by Princeton professors Socolow and Pacala. The reporting reveals that BP executives helped shape the paper's framework, ensuring fossil fuels would remain central to climate solutions for decades. The paper pushed carbon capture and natural gas as key wedges, even though CCS was not a ready technology. McKibben connects this history to current policy failures, noting that the Inflation Reduction Act's carbon capture subsidies survived Republican cuts while renewable energy funding was gutted. The article argues that CCS remains a costly distraction that allows continued fossil fuel use without meaningful emissions reductions.