EPA rule may expand options for carbon dioxide disposal
EPA rule may expand options for carbon dioxide disposal in state
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By John David Sutter
Published: July 16, 2008
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is trying to make sure the fight against global warming doesn't result in polluted groundwater supplies.
The agency proposed Tuesday its first regulations concerning the large-scale underground injection of a global warming gas — carbon dioxide. The move opens the door for power companies to inject carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants into the ground, where they won't contribute to climate change. The rule is designed to protect groundwater that could mix with those injections. The regulations may not be finalized until 2010 or 2011. Carbon capture and storage technology has never been successfully used on a large scale. For power companies to use it, carbon sequestration would have to become less expensive than paying to pollute. Injecting carbon dioxide into the ground is not new. But the scale of storage used to deal with coal power emissions would be unprecedented. Carbon sequestration shoots slightly liquefied gas more than 2,000 feet into the ground, where it should stay partially liquid and not move much, according to the EPA rule.
Related Topics:
Science and Technology, Environmental Protection, Nature and the Environment, Sciences, Earth Science, Climatology, Global Climate Change

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