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'False promise': DOE's carbon removal plans rankle community advocates
E&E News writer Jean Chemnick reports that the Biden administration has championed carbon removal projects as better neighbors than the pollution-spewing industries of the past. But the Department of Energy’s first two candidates for its $3.5 billion direct air capture program have conducted an opaque early outreach process in the disadvantaged Louisiana and Texas communities where the projects would be built, leaving residents feeling shut out.
In a nutshell:
The Biden administration's push for carbon removal projects, as part of its environmental agenda, faces scrutiny due to concerns over community engagement. The Department of Energy (DOE) selected Battelle Memorial Institute and Occidental Petroleum Corp. for its $3.5 billion direct air capture program in Louisiana and Texas. Environmental justice groups in these areas express frustration at the lack of meaningful outreach before project selection, feeling excluded from the process. DOE, while emphasizing two-way community engagement, faces criticism for not consulting with communities from the project's inception, potentially exacerbating tensions between environmental justice and carbon removal efforts.
Key quote:
“As a community, we are already last on the list,” said Roishetta Ozane, an environmental justice advocate based in Louisiana’s majority-Black North Lake Charles neighborhood. “Everybody knows about this project, it was funded and everything. And now they want to come to the community when it should have been the other way around.”
The big picture:
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facilities aim to collect carbon dioxide generated by coal- or gas-fired power production or plastics manufacturing, pumping CO2 into storage facilities instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Yet CCS facilities can also perpetuate the reliance on fossil fuel industries, hindering progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, they are energy intensive to operate and often powered by fossil fuels, canceling out the climate benefits and polluting surrounding communities.
Many critics of CCS therefore consider the technology a false solution to the climate crisis. But with new subsidies available for CCS in the Inflation Reduction Act, many environmental advocates warn of a looming CCS boom. That's especially problematic for communities overburdened with pollution from fossil fuel facilities, since CCS enables their continued operation. Disadvantaged communities often face limited opportunities for meaningful input in project decisions.
Read Chemnick's article in full at E&E News.
To learn more, check out Douglas Fischer's piece for EHN, which describes a campaign coordinated by the Center for International Environmental Law that questioned the efficacy of CCS. In an open letter to policymakers, a coalition of 500 U.S. and Canadian organizations wrote that, at best, carbon capture and storage prevents some emissions from reaching the atmosphere – provided the captured gases are not later released. At worst, the coalition claims, CCS masks emissions, increases pipeline infrastructure and prolongs the fossil fuel era."
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Photo by Savvas Kalimeris on Unsplash
DOE commits $450M to install rooftop solar for highest-need Puerto Ricans
Gabriela Aoun Angueira reports in Grist about Department of Energy plans to allocate nearly $500 million to install rooftop solar and battery backup systems on the homes of vulnerable residents in Puerto Rico, aiming to provide reliable and affordable energy to high-need households amid frequent blackouts.
In a nutshell:
While overhauling Puerto Rico's grid will take years, these funds will offer immediate help to the residents most vulnerable during blackouts. The funding, part of the $1 billion Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund approved by Congress, will target low-income families, including those medically vulnerable and living in remote communities. The program's third-party ownership model will relieve households of system maintenance, and community outreach efforts have helped shape the initiative, signaling a shift towards more inclusive and equitable program design.
Key quote:
“We’re very glad that it appears that their intention is to focus these funds on the people who are truly so low-income or disabled that they have no other viable way to acquire solar and storage,” PJ Wilson, president of the Solar and Energy Storage Association in Puerto Rico said. “Hopefully this helps lift people out of poverty.”
The big picture:
The blackouts in Puerto Rico have had significant effects on vulnerable populations, exacerbating existing challenges and hardships. With frequent power outages, access to essential services and resources like healthcare, communication, and clean water becomes even more limited, impacting the well-being and resilience of communities already facing socio-economic disparities.
Read the article at Grist.
Disparities abound in Puerto Rico. For example, Puerto Ricans are disproportionately affected with asthma. Lorraine N. Vélez-Torres reports that adult asthma rates are 1.3 times higher than in the U.S., and Puerto Rican children are twice as likely to be afflicted as compared to U.S. children.
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Image by Robert Jones from Pixabay
Biden’s Department of Energy will loan out billions for energy infrastructure reinvestment
The International Energy Agency expects the world to invest about a billion dollars a day into solar in 2023, marking the first time the renewable has surpassed global investment in oil production. It’s astonishing growth for an industry that was in its infancy just a decade ago.
Lights out for incandescent bulbs
The incandescent lightbulbs that have been illuminating American homes and businesses since Thomas Edison first unveiled them in 1879 are finally coming off U.S. shelves.
Newsletter
Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash
Why the high price of modernizing the U.S. power grid is worth it
The U.S.’ outdated and fragmented power grid is increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change and global warming, but estimates show that upgrading it may cost billions, even trillions, over the coming decades.
Newsletter
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
Granholm details views on climate law, gas, DOE staffing
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm offered new details on how her department is handling billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act as she defended support of the Mountain Valley pipeline and Biden administration actions after Republican attacks on proposed energy projects tied to China.
Newsletter
DOE finalizes national hydrogen road map
The Department of Energy outlined Monday how hydrogen could become a major source of clean energy in the United States, even as the prospective industry awaits important decisions from other Biden administration agencies.
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