Los Angeles, CA—Consumer Watchdog is urging Governor Newsom to veto SB 614 (Stern), a bill that lifts a moratorium on the construction of pipelines to carry compressed carbon dioxide away from Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects proposed by a host of companies including big oil producers.
“Consumer Watchdog writes to urge you to veto SB 614 (Stern), a bill that prematurely lifts California’s moratorium on the building of dangerous and underregulated pipelines carrying compressed carbon dioxide,” Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court wrote Newsom in a letter.
“The reason that this legislation deserves a veto is twofold,” the letter continues. “It contains no setback between such pipelines and communities with sensitive receptors from hospitals to schools and daycares. It also leaves up to the Fire Marshal the use of an odorant that, added to the compressed carbon to produce the smell of rotten eggs, would warn the public there is something wrong should a pipeline leak or burst.”
Oil industry lobbyists, including Virgil Welch of Caliber Strategies representing major oil producer California Resources Corp. (CRC) and a long-time former California Air Resources Board top advisor to the chair, rebuffed the proposal for a setback from environmental justice advocates. CRC and other companies are proposing a host of CCS projects around the state that depend on such pipelines. CCS projects fail more than they succeed, overpromise and underdeliver, emit pollution by burning fossil fuels to run them, and are very expensive.
“Climate leaders don’t support unsafe carbon pipelines for the fossil fuel industry’s unproven carbon capture projects,” said Court.
The letter admonishes the architects of SB 614—Senator Henry Stern and Assembly Member Cottie Petrie-Norris. “At the very least, the legislation should have required a 3,200-foot setback on either side of such a pipeline in deference to SB 1137, which requires such a setback between communities and their sensitive receptors such as hospitals, schools and daycares,” Court wrote.
“A setback of two miles at least is necessary to protect the public. Monetary arguments about corporate inconvenience should not be excuses to exclude one. Compressed carbon dioxide pipelines are extremely dangerous because of the high pressure involved. These pipelines can easily corrode if CO2 mixes with water. The potential for a catastrophic rupture cannot be ignored. When released, CO2 is a potentially lethal asphyxiant.”
The letter cites a 2020 explosion of a carbon pipeline 2.5 miles away from the small town of Satartia, Mississippi. A carbon dioxide plume displaced oxygen near the ground and sent at least 45 people to the hospital while more than 200 were evacuated. Symptoms included convulsions and unconsciousness. No odorant had been added to the compressed gas.
