Any planner knows to look backwards before moving forward. Remembering how the (soy)milk got knocked over last time we put it on the counter’s edge, we use history as our guide everyday. However, Pennsylvania lawmakers appear to have dispensed with this type of reflective preparation. In introducing House Bill 80, Pennsylvania legislators are poised to repeat our most egregious energy blunders – obligating taxpayers to fund an unsafe, unproven, energy intensive, and expensive new coal technology called carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
The idea behind carbon capture technology is to capture the notorious greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, liquefy it (using tremendous amounts of energy), and then pump the carbon underground calling climate change stopped.
The problem is that continuing to burn coal as a fuel source also continues traditions of discrimination and injustice, traditions that routinely ‘sacrifice’ low-income communities and communities of color to deliver our energy needs. Removing non-toxic carbon dioxide emissions does nothing to prevent or mitigate destructive mining practices, dangerous fly ash disposal, or pollution from combustion. CCS fails to make efficiency programs, wind, or solar appear more quickly, and even industry experts admit that the technology (and the jobs it promises) won’t be available until 2020.
I’m not just crying over spilled milk. Every dollar invested in renewable energy makes it less expensive, while every cent poured into fossil fuels makes it more expensive. With PECO ratecaps coming off in the next two years, we cannot afford to promote archaic polluting fuels.
