Green Party of Pennsylvania says no to Carbon Sequestration

Green Party of Pennsylvania says no to Carbon Sequestration

GREEN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA
http://gpofpa.org/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Hillary Kane, 267-971-3559
Jay Sweeney, 570-587-3603


No substitute for reducing emissions

This week, the Green Party of Pennsylvania spoke out against a plan by Governor Rendell to bury waste from power plants in the ground. Known as "carbon sequestration," the technique is believed to be more environmentally friendly than releasing toxics into the air.

However, the Green Party believes that injecting toxics into the ground is no solution to the problem noting that sequestered toxins can leak into groundwater and cause other disastrous environmental effects. Carbon sequestration will require capturing carbon dioxide, compressing into a liquid, transporting it through pipelines to a sequestration site and injecting it beneath the earth's surface.

"We should be reducing our carbon emissions not simply moving the by-products around like it's some sort of shell game," said Hillary Kane, GPPA Chair.

Recently, Governor Rendell and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources have initiated an effort to explore the state's geologic storage potential for carbon capture and storage or sequestration. Act 129 of 2008 requires research on carbon sequestration. Pennsylvania produces one percent of the earth's greenhouse gases and this is an attempt to reduce the commonwealth's contribution to global warming.

According to the Rendell administration, capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere will allow coal resources to be used in a more environmentally friendly manner.

But the Green Party, a long-time environmental leader, disagrees. "Carbon capture and storage is no substitute for reducing carbon emissions. Pennsylvania should be reducing its coal fired power production by 50% and increasing its solar and wind energy production to compensate for this reduction," suggested Wyoming County Green Party chair Jay Sweeney. "Capturing carbon, liquefying it and building a system of pipes to move the liquefied carbon to a sequestration site poses many environmental hazards including leakage into soil and water. The science is unproven and the results could be far more harmful than the benefits." The Green Party of Pennsylvania, (http://www.gpofpa.org), is an independent political party founded on the four pillars of grassroots democracy, social justice, ecological wisdom and nonviolence.