Pipeline leak exposes carbon capture safety gaps, advocates say
▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/19/exxon-pipeline-leak-carbon-capture-safety-gaps
Les pipelines de CO2, ça fuit, et ça peut être dangereux.
About 5,000 miles [8000 km] of #CO2 #pipelines are currently operating in the US, which are predominantly for transporting the gas to oilfields where it is used to extract hard-to-reach oil – a process known as enhanced oil recovery. The pipeline running through Sulphur is part of a network stretching more than 900 miles [1500 km] through Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, which #ExxonMobile acquired from Denbury last year.
In 2020, almost 50 residents required hospital treatment after the Denbury (now Exxon) pipeline ruptured in Satartia, Mississippi, releasing 31,000 barrels of CO2. The incident exposed major flaws in the existing health and safety regulations for CO2 pipelines, which as a result are currently being updated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The update is already facing delays, and could take years.
Yet the CO2 pipeline network is forecast to grow as much as tenfold thanks in part to billions of dollars of tax incentives in the 2022 #Inflation_Reduction_Act – as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in direct investment for CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. The Biden administration is counting on #CCS to meet its climate goals – despite compelling evidence that the technology is inefficient and will probably prolong the use of fossil fuels.