Consider This from NPR - With The Expansion of Carbon Capture Pipelines Come Safety Fears

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

The United States has 27 years to reach its net-zero emissions goal. And among other initiatives to move towards that goal, the Biden administration is offering incentives for carbon capture and storage. Carbon capture is a way to suck up carbon dioxide pollution from ethanol plants, power plants and steel factories, and store it deep underground.While the companies that build the pipelines say the technology will help the U.S. meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals, they have also run into problems. In Iowa, farmers are pushing back against the pipelines crossing their land. And for a town in Mississippi, a CO2 pipeline endangered lives.NPR's Julia Simon reports from Satartia, Mississippi on the aftermath of a pipeline rupture. The Climate Investigations Center obtained recordings of the 911 calls from Satartia and shared them with NPR. Harvest Public Media's Katie Peikes also provided reporting in this episode.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. Two years ago, President Biden signed an executive order for the U.S. government to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. It's an economic imperative. I think it's a moral imperative to future generations. Since then, the Biden administration has continued to push for measures that would curb greenhouse gas emissions and stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. So it must also be a decisive decade for innovation, developing, demonstrating, and commercializing new clean energy technologies by 2030 so that they can be widely deployed

in time to meet our 2050 net zero goals. Getting to that 2050 goal means doing things like developing more wind and solar power, scaling up the number of electric vehicles on the roads, and implementing carbon capture technology. In the Midwest, three companies say building major carbon capture pipelines could remove gas from ethanol plants and store it deep underground. We have the highest concentration of ethanol production. Monty Shaw is executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. The Biden administration is offering incentives for carbon dioxide removal, and Shaw says Iowa's ethanol industry needs carbon pipelines to compete. If Iowa screws this up, we're in big trouble. We will absolutely lose a huge chunk of our industry

and put the Iowa ag economy in a tailspin. Now, the proposed pipeline routes could span six states, from the Dakotas down to Illinois, some of them crossing rich farmland. And while many farmers in Iowa say they support ethanol, many oppose carbon pipelines, not over carbon emissions, but over property rights. Like Northeast Iowa farmer Jeff Reintz. He says he was skeptical when he first heard of the pipelines, and then he learned that a nearby ethanol plant had signed onto a project with plans to run a pipeline through part of his farm. This is some of the best farmland the good Lord has entrusted us with to be stewards of, and it's just a shame to think that

just for private gain that they're going to put that scar across our land. The three companies that can build these pipelines say capturing carbon will help the U.S. meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals and say they'll be able to capture and store 15 million metric tons of CO2 each year. But University of Minnesota engineering professor Jason Hill says long term, the pipelines just perpetuate using liquid fuel for transportation. In fact, we know that vehicle electrification using clean electricity sources or cleaner electricity sources can more quickly get us to our carbon reduction targets. The issue in Iowa has brought farmers and environmentalists together in an unusual alliance.

Jess Mazur of the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club says carbon pipelines do not solve climate change. There are tried and true ways to solve our climate crisis that are better uses of our public tax dollars than this questionable technology that puts risky pipelines in our backyards, that destroys farmland. Consider this. The United States has 27 years to reach its net zero emissions goal. While some see carbon capture pipelines as one solution, they have run up against problems besides land rights. The pipelines can also pose grave safety risks. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It is Tuesday, May 23rd. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time, mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Download the WISE app today pipelines in the U.S. In the next few decades, researchers say that number could grow to more than 65,000 miles of pipeline, stretching across the country. NPR climate reporter Julia Simon takes us to a Mississippi community where a CO2 pipeline put lives at risk. This is Perry Creek Road right here. Okay. So that's Perry Creek. Demarest Debray Burns showed me the spot on a rural road that changed his life, an experience he thinks is a warning for America. On a Saturday night three years ago, Burns was heading home from a fishing trip in a red Cadillac with his brother and his cousin. Went fishing, had a nice time.

And as we were coming back down the road, first we heard it, then we saw it. A boom and a white cloud. Big old cloud of just gas just came up out the ground. His first thought, pipeline. And I called my mama. I said, oh, mom, this pipeline that blew up down here, we on our way to come get y'all. Bray called me, and he was like frantic. This is his mom, Thelma Brown.

The kids was outside playing, and I had the baby in the house. She got the kids inside, and she waited for her sons and nephew. And waited. They didn't come. They didn't come. Ten minutes, I knew they would have been here in five minutes waited. They didn't come. They didn't come. Ten minutes, I knew they would have been here in five minutes, but they didn't come. Little did she know, the men were just down the road in the Cadillac, unconscious, victims of a mass poisoning from a carbon dioxide pipeline

rupture that sent 45 people to the hospital. Right now, the U.S. only has about 8,000 kilometers of these carbon dioxide pipelines. But given the country's climate solution priorities, that number is set to climb. It's on the order of 100,000 kilometers of CO2 pipelines. Jesse Jenkins is a professor at Princeton. His team looked at U.S. climate goals and they see lots of carbon capture in the country's future. That's the idea of sucking up carbon dioxide from industry and power plants and storing it underground before it heats the planet. But when you suck up carbon

dioxide, you often can't store it in the same place you trap it. You need to send it to a spot underground with the right geology, which can be far away. So pipelines. Jesse Aranevis is CEO of the pipeline company Enlink. The market is going to be exponential. But people in Satarsha fear that three years since the incident in their town, America still has a lot to learn about carbon dioxide pipeline risks. Number one. When too much carbon dioxide gets in the air, it displaces oxygen and cars can stop working.

Combustion engines need oxygen to run. Here's a 911 call from that night in Satarsha. I don't know what's going on. My car stopped. It won't move. This was also a problem for first responders, says Jerry Briggs, a local fire coordinator. He was on call that night searching for victims in a two-seat ATV. I said, turn around, keep this thing running, don't let it die. Because I don't want to be stranded with nothing to get us out of here. And CO2 doesn't just affect cars, it affects health. Humans are always breathing some carbon dioxide, but too much causes a thirst for oxygen, disorientation, and things quickly go downhill. My daughter,

she can't breathe. She's on the floor right now. My friend, she's shaking. She's kind of drooling out of the mouth. I don't know if she's having a seizure or not. Could you please get somebody quick? Briggs and his team finally found Burns, his brother and cousin, in the red Cadillac. Slumped over, foaming at the mouth,

obviously unresponsive. They dragged the men to the sputtering vehicle, got them to the hospital. They all woke up. But for Burns, his health problems didn't end there. He, his brother and cousin were on oxygen for several months. Oxygen tank that we had to take around with us everywhere we went. Burns still has neurological issues three years later, headaches, difficulty concentrating. NPR spoke with the chief of staff of a local hospital who said his patients who experienced the pipeline rupture have seen an increase in the frequency and severity of their asthma attacks and chronic lung issues.

We are on the verge of proposals to dramatically expand that CO2 pipeline network. It really is time to step back and think about whether this makes any sense. California Congressman Jared Huffman's on the House Committee for Pipeline Safety. He says there are still big gaps around regulating CO2 pipelines. The federal government hasn't established minimum safe zones around them. CO2 is odorless and there's no current requirement to add odorants. And some types of CO2 aren't currently regulated at all. Federal regulators are working on new rules for these pipelines, and they found that the pipeline operator in Satarsha, Denbury, violated existing

rules. Denbury paid a $2.8 million penalty, and Burns and others in the community are suing the company. The government's report says although Denbury knew within a minute that there was an issue, they didn't immediately tell first responders. Here's Jack Willingham, emergency director for the county. I never heard from them because they didn't. I mean, everybody knows they did. It just didn't happen. Nobody contacted us to let us know. He says only after his fire chief called did the company confirm the rupture, more than 40 minutes after it happened. Wellingham worries that with thousands of miles of new pipelines, it will be that much harder to enforce the rules. I think they're dependent on the operators. You can't police yourself.

Pipeline companies expanding across the South and Midwest tell NPR they're learning from Satarsha. In statements, Denbury says they fully cooperated with regulators to investigate the incident and worked with local officials and residents to address the impacts. They say they remain committed to continually improving pipeline safety and mitigating the impact of climate change. But Congressman Huffman questions if this even is a climate solution. Most of the CO2 now in these pipelines is used to extract more oil. And he says new carbon capture projects could extend the life of fossil fuel operations. That is really doubling down on the problem side of the climate crisis and not getting at the real solution, which is to stop extracting and burning these fossil fuels. The car stopped right there.

Back in Satarsha, Burns walked by the spot where he lost consciousness after the pipeline broke. So how do you feel when you're here? Oh, I really don't need to come down here too much more because, you know, it had me just in some type of way. He takes the long way to his mom's house. It gets better with time. I just try to keep my distance.

As for communities getting new carbon dioxide pipelines, he hopes they get more safety precautions. But mainly, he feels sorry for them. That was Julia Simon reporting from Satarsha, Mississippi. You also heard reporting from Harvest Public Media's Katie Pikus in this episode. It's Consider This. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York,

working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org.