Germany Says NOT UNDER MY BACKYARD to Carbon Cap and Storage

In what could be a first in the “NUMBY” stance, Germans have said “No” to plans involving pumping CO2 from coal burning plants, into the ground.

It was hailed as a first step in demonstrating “Clean Coal” technology – a project intended to capture emissions from a coal-fired power station and bury them safely underground.

Vattenfall’s Schwarze Pumpe project in Spremberg, northern Germany, launched in a blaze of publicity last September, saying that it would trap, transport and bury the greenhouse gases. They have recently admitted that they don’t have a permit. This is a result of the local public having questions about the safety of the project,” said Staffan Gortz, head of carbon capture and storage communication at Vattenfall. He said he did not expect to get a permit before next spring: “People are very, very skeptical.”

Jim Footner, a Greenpeace climate campaigner, said the German protests were “a stark warning to those that think CCS is an easy solution to the huge climate problems of coal-fired power stations”.

The first wake-up call came in March, when a Dutch council objected to Shell’s plans to store CO₂ in depleted gas fields under the town of Barendrecht, near Rotterdam.

One of the little known facts about Carbon Cap and Storage (CCS) or Clean Coal Technology, is that in order for it to work, utilities would need to burn up to 3 times as much coal to complete the process, while producing the same amount of electricity as current production rates.

This wil cause many problems:

• Increased cost to the consumer: When you have to utilize 3 times as much coal to bury the pollutant (CO2) that the coal produces, the cost of the coal is going to be passed on to the consumer. Pro Coal advocates like to throw the term “Cap and Tax” around. Why aren’t they using it in this scenerio?
• Increased devastation to the environment: All the easy coal has been mined. We would not be blowing the tops off mountains, dropping the fill in valleys and poisoning West Virginians, if there were easy seams to be mined. Increasing coal mining by 300% is going to wreak unfathomable damage on nature and mankind.
• There is no guarantee that once buried, the CO2 will not escape.

Our alternative to this supposed “clean coal” technology is not to continue releasing it into the atmosphere, but to transition to a smart grid that utilizes wind, water and sun power. I know that it can not be done overnight, but instead of creating new technologies to burn more of something that we are running out of, and something that poisons our air, water and soil, we need to look ahead towards renewable electricity options.

Source: The Guardian photo credit: Irish Typepad

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