Stopping Carbon Capture and Sequestration Before It Starts
Jan 28th, 2009 by admin
from www.crmw.net
The nation’s first carbon capture and sequestration scheme is sneaking its way through the West Virginia Department of Environmental “Protection.” This is right on time with the Senate’s attempt to sneak in $4.6 billion for Clean Coal in the Stimulus Package. This Carbon Capture and Sequestration boondoggle needs to stop before it starts.
Mountaineer Power Plant as seen from Ohio
We need your help to stop it! Please comment on this faulty permit by Friday.
“Clean Coal” may sound like fun to folks till it shows up in your backyard. Please support the communities in WV and nearby Ohio who are fighting this permit! Carbon Sequestration requires plants to use more coal, which results in more mountaintop removal coal mining. This technology is dangerous, expensive, and untested.
This particular scheme — estimated at $70 million– will only capture around 1% of the plant’s emissions. The permit does not show the contours of the strata the CO2 will be injected into nor does it mention how surrounding water will be impacted. If this permit is approved, it will be approved without knowing where and how the CO2 will migrate.
This Friday, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection will close the comment period on American Electric Power’s permit application to capture and geologically sequester Carbon Dioxide emissions from its Mountaineer Power Plant. Please take a moment to visit www.crmw.net/CCS_Comments.php to tell the DEP not to approve this permit.
Why else is Carbon Capture and Sequestration a Bad Idea?
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is not a viable option to prevent catastrophic climate change. In a best case scenario, CCS wouldn’t significantly contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions for at least 15 years, well beyond the time period in which we have to significantly curb our CO2 emissions.
CCS is an energy intensive process. For a coal-fired power plant to capture and sequester all of its CO2, it would require up to 40% of the plant’s energy output. This means that while its capturing 1% of it’s emissions, Mountaineer will also produce 0.4% more CO2 to maintain energy output levels and carbon sequestration, making the already minuscule amount of CO2 captured even less significant.
This decrease in efficiency will lead to increased coal consumption and mountaintop removal coal mining.
Capturing and sequestering carbon emissions from a coal-fired power plant will double the price of electricity from coal, making it more expensive than renewables like wind and solar.
We cannot afford to waste precious time and resources on this dead end technology.
Please go to www.crmw.net/CCS_Comments.php to learn more and submit your comments by January 30, or mail them to
Director, Division of Water and Waste Management, DEP
601 57th Street SE
Charleston, WV 25304-2345
ATTN: Jeff Knepper, UIC Programs
Thanks from Coal River Mountain Watch.
www.crmw.net
