Experts Call For Moratorium On CO2 Pipeline Permitting, As Controversial Proposals Advance

Source: Food & Water Watch

Excerpt:

Today, at a briefing on CO2 pipeline safety, national experts called for a moratorium on hazardous carbon pipeline permitting, citing serious medical, public health and safety risks of the pipeline buildout required to meet the Biden Administration’s embrace of carbon capture technology. Just this month, Biden’s EPA launched a power plant emissions reductions plan that relies heavily on carbon capture.

“The Biden Administration’s foolhardy embrace of carbon capture is prompting a pipeline feeding frenzy that would endanger thousands of Americans. Carbon pipelines are a known threat to public health and safety. We can’t go down this road,” said Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh. “The Biden Administration must enact a moratorium on carbon pipeline permitting until robust federal safety regulations have been finalized.”

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is currently revising federal carbon pipeline safety regulations after a 2020 rupture in Satartia, Mississippi evacuated a town and sent 49 people to the hospital. At the request of an alliance of 30 groupsrepresenting Indigenous communities, landowners, sustainable agriculture, public health, and climate organizations, the agency will hold a public meeting in Des Moines May 31-June 1 on CO2 pipeline safety.

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