Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin have designed a pioneering project to capture carbon dioxide emissions from the existing Mustang natural gas power plant in West Texas. If built, the project could help kickstart an industry to clean up America’s energy sector after a decade of false starts. The protest against carbon capture is an extension of environmentalists’ long-held opposition to most uses of fossil fuels, especially coal, as well as nuclear energy because of the pollution and toxic waste they leave behind. The difference here is a technology that can potentially provide much cleaner fossil fuel power that greens reject anyway as a cynical scheme by industry to extend the life of coal and gas plants and slow the rollout of renewable energy. “Carbon capture in the power sector is a documented ploy to keep the fossil fuel industry profits going,” says John Noel, a senior climate …