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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has received abundant federal support in the USA as an energy technology to mitigate climate change, yet its position within the energy system remains uncertain. Because media play a significant role in shaping public conversations about science and technology, we analyzed media portrayal of CCS in newspapers from four strategically selected states. We grounded the analysis in Luhmann's theory of social functions, operationalized through the socio-political evaluation of energy deployment (SPEED) framework. Coverage emphasized economic, political/legal, and technical functions and focused on benefits, rather than risks of adoption. Although news coverage connected CCS with climate change, the connection was constrained by political/legal functions. Media responses to this constraint indicate how communication across multiple social functions may influence deployment of energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wind power is a critically important climate change mitigation technology, and the most rapidly growing renewable energy technology in the USA. Wind energy can provide carbon-free electricity generation, so within societal discourse on how society should minimize the risks of climate change it is widely recognized and acknowledged as a valuable technology. Despite recent increases in wind turbine installation in the USA, the high-level of variation in deployment patterns of wind technology in different states cannot be explained simply by wind resource patterns. Other factors, including differences in the state-level, socio-political context, seem to be influencing wind development. This research compares these contextual differences by using media analysis to assess state-level public discourse about wind technology. Through comparative content and frame analysis of newspaper coverage of wind power in Texas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, we explore state-level variations in the salience of wind in public discourse, the focus on wind power as a climate change mitigating technology, and the framing of wind power's risks and benefits. In addition to identifying distinct state-level variation in wind energy discourse, the results demonstrate that wind's climate change mitigation potential has been a limited but growing part of media coverage on wind power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]