We have busied ourselves in a race between technology and man-caused tragedy. Huge amounts of money and effort are being spent to develop an approach to address man-caused global warming. One of the many approaches to address the alleged impending doom is the cutting-edge technology of “let’s just bury it” by carbon sequestration.
Carbon sequestration technology is already quite well established. This technology is the ongoing sequestration of carbon by plants, living then dying. As one of many examples, here in my home state of Pennsylvania, we call that spring and fall. Capturing CO2 emissions and pumping them into the ground is gaining in popularity on the established plant technology as a mitigation measure. Consistent with the illogical, feel-good approach of the purveyors of man-caused global warming, the quiet secret is that the primary use of CO2 injection currently is to help mobilize oil and gas in underground hydrocarbon reservoirs to increase production.
As a requirement of CO2 sequestration, the U.S. EPA has developed regulations to address potential issues associated with CO2 sequestration. As a part of these regulations, a Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Plan is required. This MRV Plan includes many components intended to address the man-made issues that the un-sequestering of CO2 may cause. The MRV Plan requires a delineation of the maximum active monitoring area to detect the release of CO2 from the subsurface; active monitoring in the maximum area that could be affected by the sequestration; identification of potential CO2 surface leakage pathways, including the likelihood, magnitude, and timing of CO2 leakage; a strategy for monitoring CO2 leakage; consideration of the Safe Drinking Water Act, etc. What could possibly go wrong?
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Jack’s Note: When I first heard of this idea my immediate thought was ‘Nobody could be this stupid’ but as it turned out over the years I clearly was wrong. Yes there are people that stupid, millions upon millions of them and this helps to explain why Justin Trudeau and his ilk are in power today. It’s a target rich environment for hucksters and thieves.