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Climate Justice Leaders Denounce Carbon Capture and Storage Plans as Scams,
Warn Reliance on Unproven Technology Exacerbates Climate Change and
Environmental Injustices

_National Network of Environmental and Community Groups Urges the Biden
Administration to stop promoting CCS and support real community led
solutions.

_PHOENIX, AZ – Yesterday, members of the Climate Justice Alliance
denounced carbon capture and storage in a comment period at the White House
Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC [4]) meeting. The WHEJAC
meeting was held in Phoenix, AZ, and is the first of three meetings this
week offering a space for the public to comment on a range of issues
concerning the WHEJAC's environmental justice mission.

Ozawa Bineshi Albert, co-executive director of the Climate Justice
Alliance, testified in person, saying:

_“We are tired of unproven methods and untested technology that is
diverting valuable time and funds that we can no longer afford. We call on
the WHEJAC and the Biden Administration to listen to our communities, name
the dangers, and end this effort to push CCS/CCUS and other carbon scams
that are delaying transition towards proven and sustainable solutions and
putting our communities' lives on the line once again.”

_Other members of the Climate Justice Alliance attended the meeting in
person, and also provided public comment.

Alejandria Lyons, Coalition Coordinator of New Mexico No False Solution
Coalition  from Albuquerque, New Mexico  explained:
_“The development of a hydrogen economy will not resolve our reliance on
fossil fuels. The WISHH project, and other large scale hydrogen hubs, will
create a public safety crisis. It has been the work of climate justice
groups across the US to highlight this issue of over-funding and
under-researched technology. In New Mexico, we are spending most of our
time debunking the myths around  hydrogen  rather than focusing our
efforts on  building a regenerative economy with these federal funds.”

_Chloe Desir, Environmental Justice Organizer,  Ironbound Community
Corporation from New Jersey added:
_“I'm here to urge the WHEJAC to stop  the possible extension of the
life of fossil fuels through the use of CCUS, which actually prevents
climate mitigation. As someone who lives and works in an environmental
justice community,  we need viable and sustainable solutions including
investing in green infrastructure instead of fossil fuel projects that use
methods such as carbon capture storage.”

_Soni Grant, Campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity from Santa
Fe, New Mexico  said:
_“It’s unacceptable that the Biden Administration and states like New
Mexico are promoting hydrogen and carbon capture, which__ will only
increase oil and gas extraction at a time when the climate emergency
demands the opposite. Hydrogen is another bait and switch from an
administration that continues to break its promises to aggressively tackle
climate change and help communities achieve a just, equitable transition to
renewable energy."

_Kiara Pereira, Just Transition Organizer with Urban Tilth in Richmond, CA.
_“An overreliance on hydrogen projects by the Biden Administration cannot
continue. It leaves frontline communities [like mine] vulnerable and
silenced in the discussion of moving away from fossil fuels.”_

There is broad consensus among key stakeholders that carbon capture and
storage is unproven, will not get us to key climate targets, and will
exacerbate environmental injustice concerns while prolonging reliance on
broken fossil fuel infrastructure.

THE DANGERS OF CCUS AND DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACTS TO MARGINALIZED
COMMUNITIES HAVE BEEN WIDELY DOCUMENTED:

* A study in the European Union [5]showed that adding Carbon Capture to
power plants increased Nitrogen Oxides by 44%, particulate matter by 33%,
and ammonia by a whopping 30 fold increase. CCUS projects will exacerbate
environmental disparities and lead to more environmental racism.

* CCUS means business as usual for polluters. By design, CCUS allows
corporations to keep extracting and burning fossil fuels. It does nothing
to address the devastating impacts of fossil fuel extraction. BP, an oil
company with billions in revenue, has stated that CCS will “enable the
full use of fossil fuels across the energy transition and beyond.” 
Black, Indigenous, and People of Color will continue to carry the burdens
of industry in the name of “decarbonization.”

* CCUS projects have failed time and again to provide any benefits to
communities or to the climate. The Department of Energy (DOE) wasted $195
million dollars into Petra Nova, a project that aimed to capture carbon
emission from a coal plant. This project ran into multiple technical
difficulties and could barely stay consistently operational while failing
to capture CO2 at its promised rate. DOE never made public any data to
verify capture rates! Moreover some of the CO2 capture was used to extract
more oil via Enhanced Oil Recovery. Most CCUS projects in the United States
are used to extract more oil!!

THE CLIMATE JUSTICE ALLIANCE URGES THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO:

* Immediately pivot away from CCS/CCUS as a core greenhouse gas emission
reduction strategy, including in the proposed rule [6] for fossil fuel
fired power plants.
* Put an end to permitting of new fossil fuel infrastructure and rapid
phase out of current polluting infrastructure.
* Ensure incentives, grantmaking, and interagency coordination to
support  community-based decentralized renewable energy, energy
efficiency, and other climate-friendly policies and practices across issues
areas.
* Support research, development, and implementation programs on recycling
and reuse of materials to reduce the need for production of steel, cement,
etc., and on non-combustion heat sources for process heat for hard to
decarbonize industries.

Ahead of the meeting, a diverse set of environmental justice leaders,
including Maria Lopez Nunez and Sharon Lewis, current and former Board
members of the Climate Justice Alliance respectively, signed onto a
statement [7] denouncing carbon capture and storage plans. _

“There is no regulatory regime at any level of government – local,
state or federal – that can protect environmental justice communities
from the cumulative risks and dangers associated with industrial carbon
management like CCS. [Furthermore]...proponents of CCS/CCUS, DAC, and
hydrogen fail to acknowledge the known and potential hazards for
communities as well as operation failures that increase climate risks. The
hazards, risks, and uncertainties of large-scale deployment of industrial
carbon removal strategies should not be hidden, ignored or dismissed, but
should be clearly identified, defined, and made known as public
information.”

_The Climate Justice Alliance affirms the concerns outlined with CCS
programs at nearly every stage of development - and echoes IPPC chair
Hoesung Lee comments that CCS is “no free lunch [8]” and overreliance
on the technology would likely mean the world misses the 1.5C warming
target. 

# # #

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Climate Justice Alliance

1960A University Ave
Berkeley, CA, 94704
United States


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