Concerns over CCS as a climate solution are growing
In concept, carbon capture and storage (CCS)sounds like it is a ready-solution to our climate crisis. In reality, it has never been tested at the scale proposed, and brings with it many unanswered questions and potential risks and harms to Illinois residents. For example:

• Carbon capture keeps fossil fuel plants running, increasing air pollution in environmental justice communities that already bear a disproportionate amount of environmental harm and risk. 

• A CO2 pipeline rupture can expose humans to high concentrations of CO2, an asphyxiant that can lead to convulsions, comma and even death, depending the length exposure. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recognizes these hazards and has implemented rulemaking to improve safety and oversight.

• CO2 can leak from storage sites via injection wells, faults or fissures, or abandoned wells, and contaminate drinking water. 

• CCS can increase emissions and divert funding from renewable energy, energy efficiency, and biological sequestration that we know can help us meet climate targets.

In recent weeks, Mark Jacobson, Stanford, wrote an opinion piece noting that the Biden Administration's carbon capture funding actually incentivizes more emissions and higher costs. This was followed by the International Energy Agency's claim that large amounts of carbon capture as a solution is an ‘illusion’. (Michelle Lewis, Electrec).

"If oil and natural gas consumption were to evolve as projected under today’s policy settings, limiting the temperature rise to 1.5C would require an “entirely inconceivable” 32 billion tonnes of carbon captured for utilization or storage by 2050, including 23 billion tonnes via direct air capture."

EJC partners with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to draft legislation
CCS hasn’t worked, and would not be feasible today without the massive public subsidies made available by the federal government. Most disturbingly, it continues our reliance on fossil fuels, and diverts funding for renewable energy and biological sequestration projects we know work. But also, the mad dash to incentivize CCS has left our state and communities unprotected from harm.

That’s why Eco-Justice Collaborative and the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines, along with Earthjustice, encouraged the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (of which we are all a part) to take a position on carbon capture, transport, and storage that has led to the preparation of a comprehensive CCS bill that maximizes protections for Illinois residents. This legislation did not make it through last year's General Assembly, and is now being updated for reintroduction after the first of the year.  We also are working on a temporary moratorium on CO2 pipelines and sequestration. This moratorium s tied to the completion of PHMSA's rulemaking to improve pipeline safety and oversight, and the passage of a protective CCS bill.

Watch this website for how you can get engage with legislators to help pass both bills!