The Networker September 2021: The Fossil Fuel Industry's New Rube Goldberg Scheme

Volume 26 (5), September 2021 The Fossil Fuel Industry's New Rube Goldberg Scheme Table of Contents 1. Editor's Note: Carbon Capture and Storage 2. Sliding Off the Cliff with Carbon Capture and Storage 3. Facts About Carbon Capture and Storage 4. A Win! How We Beat Carbon Capture and Storage in New Jersey 5. A Decision Tree for Technological Solutions 6. Carbon Capture and Storage: A Briefing 7. SEHN In The News Editor's Note: Carbon Capture and Storage Friends, In June, I opened the Des Moines Register to find an article about a new proposal for a pipeline that would be sited through Iowa to transport carbon captured from ethanol plants and ship it to North Dakota. I couldn’t figure out what this could be. Don’t we want to capture CO2? Where is the CO2 coming from? Who is proposing this? Soon after that I saw an article about the State Bank of North Dakota rejecting a loan for another carbon capture project because it was too risky. Here’s the thing, this is not our first pipeline rodeo. Remember Dakota Access and the Water Protectors? The Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) sponsored the large coalition that tried to fend off Dakota Access in Iowa. We had been deeply engaged with our Indigenous allies at Standing Rock and in Illinois and South Dakota, coordinating efforts to stop that pipeline. Within days of reading the North Dakota carbon capture story we convened a group of pipeline fighters and anti-fracking folks—aka climate and clean water fighters. We set out to learn everything we could about Carbon Capture and Storage. The first thing we learned is that CO2 pipelines are actually hazardous liquid pipelines. These aren’t benign. They aren’t motherhood and apple pie structures. CO2 is an asphyxiant. It kills. The second thing we learned is that Carbon Capture and Storage projects are in the works across the country. They are being proposed by the fossil fuel industry to extend the life of fossil fuels in many states, coast to coast and top to bottom. Guess who is slated to pay for these fossil fuel boondoggles? Yep. Us. The public. The North Dakota legislature went around the Bank of North Dakota and agreed to use public money as a giveaway to the coal industry to fund a carbon capture project. The federal government is practically printing money for the purpose of funding the oil and gas industry’s Carbon Capture and Storage. In this issue of the Networker we share with you the facts about Carbon Capture and Storage, so you have the information you need to participate in the struggle for a livable future. Carolyn Raffensperger Executive Director Sliding Off the Cliff with Carbon Capture and Storage Reuben “Rube” Goldberg was an American sculptor and engineer whose day job was political cartooning. In 1948, he won a Pulitzer Prize for a syndicated cartoon that depicts a house, a birdbath, and a picnicking family perched on a nuclear bomb that is balanced on the edge of a cliff. The face of the cliff is labeled WORLD CONTROL. The dark empty space into which the bomb is sliding is labeled WORLD DESTRUCTION. And the title of the cartoon is “Peace Today.” By the time he received his Pulitzer, Goldberg had already attracted so much anti-Semitic hate for his satirical commentary on, among other things, the rise of fascism in Europe and the failure of political institutions to contain it, that, fearing for his children’s safety, he felt compelled to disguise the family identity and so changed his sons’ surname to “George” before they went off to college. But if none of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you know Rube Goldberg as the creator of the iconic cartoon character Professor Butts, the fanciful and foolish inventor of convoluted devices designed to carry out tasks by the most complicated, outlandish, and inefficient means possible, typically involving unnecessary automation and an uncontrollable chain reaction. Continue Reading Facts about Carbon Capture and Storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an experimental technology to capture carbon dioxide gas (CO2) from the smokestacks of power plants, pressurize it until it turns into a liquid, send it somewhere through a long high-pressure pipeline, then pump it about a mile below ground, hoping it will stay there forever. The U.S. Department of Energy is currently examining 19 sites in the midwestern U.S. as possible storage sites for hazardous waste CO2. The American public knows almost nothing about any of this. Here we present a set of verifiable facts and “talking points” for citizens who want to reveal the truth about carbon capture and storage (CCS). These facts reveal that CCS is dangerous, expensive, wasteful, unhealthy, unnecessary, and a distraction from the urgent need to eliminate fossil fuels and replace them with clean, renewable energy as soon as humanly possible. Continue Reading A Win! How We Beat Carbon Capture and Storage in New Jersey On April 18, 2009 the New York Times revealed plans by a tiny 8-person company (SCS Energy) to build an experimental 500-megawatt “clean coal” power plant in Linden, NJ – a $50 billion project called PurGen One. The Purgen proposal featured carbon capture and storage – a scheme to capture 500 million tons of hazardous waste carbon dioxide from the smokestacks and bury it beneath the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Later, the Purgen coal-plant proposal was enlarged to 750 megawatts.) In a two-year battle, a small group of 55 volunteer activists drove the project out of New Jersey. This is their story (or at least part of it). Artist’s rendition of the Purgen One coal plant with carbon capture and storage proposed in 2009 for a site in Linden, New Jersey. The Purgen coal plant was designed to capture a trillion pounds of hazardous waste carbon dioxide from the smokestack, pressurize it into a liquid, and launch it through a 140-mile-long pipeline that would snake along the New Jersey coast sea-floor until it veered out to sea at Atlantic City. There, 70 miles offshore, a pumping platform would force the liquid CO2 a half-mile beneath the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean, hoping it would stay there forever. Among proponents of the project, sub-seabed CO2 disposal was considered “ideal” (and still is) for 3 reasons: 1. No one lives nearby, so no local opposition to siting. 2. A leak will only disturb a few fish, they said. 3. Best of all – it’s far offshore, out-of-sight and out-of-mind, so who’ll ever pay any attention? Continue Reading A Decision Tree for Technological Solutions How do you choose the best technological solution? Click on our decision tree above to learn more! SEHN Events Briefing on Carbon Capture and Storage 10:30 am CST Please join us for a one and a half hour briefing on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). CCS is being touted as a climate solution. In this webinar, a leading climate scientist and engineer, a biologist, a physician and a community organizer will describe the hazards and risks associated with plans of the fossil fuel industry to capture, transport and store CO2. Register Here! Bold Rethink Plenary 9/23 with John Bonifaz at 2 pm EST Please join a lively presentation and discussion hosted by the Bold ReThink team at SEHN. This event features John Bonifaz who will be talking about the jurisprudence grounded in the promises of political equality and democratic self-government. John is the co-founder and president of Free Speech for People and has been a guiding force in human rigths and democracy. He's a renowned innovator in democratic goverance. Register by sending an email to moreinfo@sehn.org. SEHN in the News WORT 89.9 FM Wisconsin SEHN Executive Director Carolyn Raffensperger is featured on WORT 89.9 discussing the new greenwashed, carbon capture tactic to address the climate crisis–CO2 Pipelines. This tactic is not so much a solution to curbing the climate crisis but more of a ploy by the fossil fuel industry and governments to keep drilling, fracking, and extracting rather than truly reducing emission levels. Listen Here. Green Street Radio: The Environmental Health Show Patti and Doug from Green Street Radio talk with SEHN Senior Scientist Sandra Steingraber about the oil industry's plan, why it won't work, why it's dangerous, and how we can all be part of the fight to actually save our planet. The episode is called Big Oil’s Crazy Plan to Address Climate Change and is available now on Green Street Radio. Listen Here. The Science and Environmental Health Network | moreinfo@sehn.org | www.sehn.org Facebook. Twitter. Instagram