Air purification centers… benefits and harms
Ruishta Ozen, 38, knows only a thing or two about pollution. Her home in Calquisio Parish, Louisiana, is surrounded by 12 petrochemical facilities that burn often harmful chemicals.
But Ozen is worried about another facility that is slated to be built near her home. Unlike other petrochemical facilities, the new facility is supposed to help fight climate change and has the backing of US President Joe Biden’s administration, as part of a $1.2 billion investment.
Ozen believes that “everyone is against any new project that arises here.” She explained that situation by saying, “We do not want to be test dummies to ensure the success of the project.” Despite the pleas of Ozen and others, the Biden administration has announced in the past few days that Calakisio Parish will be one of the first locations in the United States chosen as a direct air-cleaning hub.
In this region, the Battelle Memorial Institute, through companies and researchers, will implement pioneering technology to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground. Researchers say the new technology is needed to stave off the worst effects of climate change, but local opposition grounded in environmental justice shows the challenges that lie ahead for the new technology. It is also a political problem for President Joe Biden, who has pledged both on the campaign trail and as president to fight for marginalized minority communities.
Scientists believe that, by the middle of the century, the world will likely need to clean the air of billions of tons of carbon dioxide annually in order to limit the global warming to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Ozen is not worried about climate change, as her house was damaged by storms, including hurricanes “Laura” and “Delta” that hit the region in 2020. And she expressed doubts about the success of air purification technology as advertised, as the nascent technology does not get rid of in time. The current only of several thousand tons of carbon dioxide per year. She also worries that a pipe that will carry carbon dioxide to storage will run less than two miles from her yard, a concern that exists in other parts of the country.
She and others voiced her opposition to the project during a tour of environment ministry officials and later at neighborhood-wide meetings with 50 residents of Calquisio Parish, where one in five people live below the poverty line. “They said they had a congressional authorization to put forward these projects,” Elida Castillo said, describing what Energy Department officials, including Shalanda Baker, director of the Department of Economic Impact and Diversity, said to her and other members of the neighborhood at a meeting held after the announcement of the winning contracts. at the agency.
Castillo, who works as director of the “Chespa Texas” program, which organizes the work of al-Qaeda organizations for people of Latin America, said that she is concerned, like “Ozen”, that another project to establish an air purification center that will be run by a branch of the oil company “Occidental Petroleum” will detain The target amount of carbon dioxide, explaining that she does not have enough details about the project or the benefit that will accrue to society from the proposed program.
Castillo, who lives about 20 miles north of Corpus Christi, Texas, added that officials “know that local communities have significant concerns with all projects of this nature.” And she went on to say, “We have to make more investments in renewable energy projects.”
The DOE said its auditors considered technical merits, mitigation plans and societal benefits when selecting the project. The agency added that it required “meaningful engagement with host communities and affected workers” as part of a plan for community benefits from the air filtration centres.
The ministry said in a statement that it “acknowledges the real concerns associated with the harm already occurring to underserved communities, and is working to ensure that these selected projects bring economic benefits and public health benefits to already overburdened communities, to avoid harm and align with the President’s vision of a fair future for clean energy.”
The Batel Institute said in a statement that it is committed to “continuous, two-way communication” with residents in the area, and that it intends to “engage stakeholders” as the project develops. Carbon reduction is a critical component of Biden’s goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050. The administration estimates that the United States will need to remove, capture and store up to 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually to achieve its goal.
It is proposing air purifiers, funded using part of the $3.5 billion earmarked for them under bipartisan infrastructure legislation, as the first step in a nationwide network of carbon removal projects.
The administration aims for each of these centers to remove one million tons of carbon annually by the end of the current decade. “These centers will help us demonstrate the potential of this game-changing technology so that others can follow suit,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters when announcing the funding.
And she went on to say, “This is an implementation of Biden’s economic plan and making smart investments in our industries, our workers, and our communities.” But the new technology faces opposition from the environmental justice group, which says air purification centers contradict Biden’s pledge to improve and prioritize the lives of marginalized communities hardest hit by toxic pollution and climate change.
These groups see that the centers are another example in which the administration’s words and actions do not agree. One concern is that billions of dollars will be spent on technology they say is untested, both technologically and economically, and could allow the oil and gas industry to continue business as usual.
And opposition from local residents and the broader environmental justice community poses a major challenge to the Biden administration and supporters of the new technology. The stakes are high and failure will make the path to implementing air purification centers much more difficult.
* Journalist specializing in environmental affairs.
Published by special arrangement with The Washington Post Leasing and Syndication Service.
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