Capturing carbon emissions: pragmatic solution or costly distraction?

It’s an ugly duckling of climate policy. Yet the idea of capturing and storing carbon emissions seems to be gaining bipartisan support. Beneath the fray is a debate over the meaning of pragmatism in policy.

After a decade of sitting on the outskirts of climate change policy, efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere – or to trap it before it leaves a smokestack – are gaining widespread momentum in Washington and beyond.

An unusually bipartisan push on Capitol Hill has resulted in a number of new bills designed to...