Letter: Is carbon boondoggle coming to Illinois?

Two corporations, Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf-ADM, are planning to build pipelines which will be used to transport carbon dioxide (CO2), collected from ethanol fermenters in five states and bury it under Illinois farmland. You may have heard of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This is it. Supporters claim that CO2 can be sucked out of factory and ethanol smokestacks, transported by pipelines, and buried deep underground forever, thereby reducing the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Supporters falsely promise that CCS will solve the climate crisis so effectively that fossil fuel industries can continue to extract and sell oil and gas for decades to come. In fact, CCS is the most expensive and least effective way to reduce greenhouse emissions. CCS supporters don't care. They chose it because it makes them look like climate heroes while they keep the fossil fuel industry in business.

Little is known about whether CO2 storage wells will leak, whether the ground will shift, and whether buried CO2 can migrate and impact groundwater. We do know that when CO2 pipelines rupture, humans, livestock and wildlife are in serious danger, because CO2 at high concentrations is an asphyxiant that can cause incapacitation, illness or death. CCS supporters don't care. What matters to them is that there is a great deal of money to be made. You as a taxpayer will pay for these CCS projects through federal tax credits, so already rich investors can make millions more. And we will still face climate catastrophe.

We have built a strong coalition to resist these boondoggles. Please help us fight back. Go to https://noillinoisco2pipelines.org/ to learn more. And call your Illinois state representative and senator and ask them to co-sponsor HB 3119, a bill crafted to regulate the use of CCS technology in Illinois.

Mary Shesgreen

Elgin