After months of debate and negotiation, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed legislation that would put Pennsylvania on the front lines of efforts to leisurely global warming by capturing climate-changing emissions from power plants and injecting that carbon deep underground. But armed with reports The fossil fuel industry is vastly overestimating the technology’s potential while downplaying its risks, environmentalists say. insistence a divided state legislature voted to repeal the law.
“It defies logic to declare that nonexistent technology is in the public interest, yet that is exactly what SB 831 does,” the grassroots coalition Better Path Coalition wrote in a July 16 statement letter to Shapiro, co-signed by leaders of 30 organizations and 18 individuals. “The bill strips Pennsylvania landowners of their subsurface property rights, shifts responsibility to the state, and exposes everyone to a new and very dangerous generation of fossil fuel infrastructure.”
Vox News Service in partnership with Drilled Reporting Project and the Pulitzer Center called carbon capture “false climate solution” and, citing the 2023 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stated that this technology, even if implemented on a vast scale, would only eliminate 2.4% of global carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. IPCC report has said that carbon capture is high-priced, often untested and has never been used on a vast scale — and internal documents show oil giant Exxon agrees with that bleak assessment, even though it publicly supports the technology.
A Pennsylvania bill would establish a regulatory framework for the growing industry, a step toward giving the state exclusive control over the issuance of permits for carbon dioxide injection drilling in the commonwealth by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
In his original formThe bill would require carbon dioxide storage operators to obtain consent from just 60 percent of landowners whose property is located in an underground storage field. The bill would also allow operators to transfer responsibility for their drilling to state regulators 10 years after they stop injecting carbon dioxide. Both provisions have enraged environmentalists.
During negotiations this summer, lawmakers changed the notification level to 75%, matching the level in effect nearby West VirginiaThe 60% threshold would be one of the lowest notification levels in the country, leaving many landowners without a say in how carbon dioxide is accumulating beneath their land.
The revised bill also extended the period for transferring responsibility for storage fields to the state to 50 years. Environmentalists complained that the 10-year threshold would discourage careful, routine maintenance of storage fields. But lawmakers added an unclear loophole — “or until an approved alternative time period.”
Expressing opposition to the bill in the Senate chamberprogressive state senator Katie Muth said the provision “in practice [reduces] amount of time to an indefinite minimum,” and the amendment, introduced by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, “did nothing to address environmental and climate concerns or protect Pennsylvanians and their private property rights.” The amended bill also added a provision to consider environmental justice concerns — or the extent to which a marginalized community is overburdened by an industry — in permitting decisions.
The bill was the latest in a series of standalone bills to reach the governor’s desk as state lawmakers passed $47.6 billion budget package for fiscal year 2024-2025, 11 days after the legally required June 30 deadline. Although the state budget process is primarily a process for determining government spending The coming fiscal year will also be the year when the relevant legislation will be passed — the bargaining chips that top lawmakers utilize to negotiate mostly secret, last-minute deals.
The final agreement included several environmental benefits:
- AND supply restrictive high emission bitcoin mines from receiving tax relief for data centers.
- An independent bill introducing school district grant program intending to build their own solar panels, a modest achievement for a state that ranks high 50. in the development of renewable energy.
- Funds to patch inactive oil and gas wells that are emitting methane.
- Financing activities for stream cleaning and protection.
“While there is much work left to do, the bipartisan agreement reached in Harrisburg helps Pennsylvania transition to a clean energy future while creating union jobs and protecting our rivers, streams and open spaces,” Molly Parzen, executive director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, said in a statement.
The final agreement also included several climate concessions:
- AND program Down accelerate the Department of Environmental Protection’s permitting process, including for fossil fuel projects
- Doubling subsidy for the combustion of coal waste which has been included in the framework annual tax code
- The establishment of a tax credit for operators of depleted oil and gas wells, also adopted as part annual tax code
Governor’s Proposal spotless energy plansThe Pennsylvania Climate Emissions Reduction Act and the Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard, which would create a carbon trading program and tighten renewable energy standards, were not passed during budget negotiations. The following also did not advance:
- AND Bill which would prohibit the routine practice of dumping oil drilling waste on roads
- AND Bill which would create a legal framework for community solar energy within the Community
- AND Bill This would result in greater public disclosure about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process, known as fracking.
‘I don’t feel great, to be candid’ about the budget deal, said Democratic Rep. Greg Vitali, who authored legislation to limit tax breaks for Bitcoin mining last year. Vitali spoke out against SB 831 on the House floor in the final hours of budget deliberations, calling carbon capture “extremely expensive” and an “untested technology.”
He was joined by his Republican counterpart on the key Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, Martin Causer, who has traditionally voted for fossil fuel legislation but argued that SB 831 “is not yet ready for widespread adoption.”
“I believe the bill should be considered primarily by the Committee on Environmental Resources and Energy,” Causer said.
Indeed, after his passing through Senate In April, the bill, SB 831, was sent to the House Consumer Protection, Technology, and Public Utilities Committee, rather than the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, the committee through which it was heard in the Senate. (Bills typically go through the same committee in each chamber before going to their respective floors.)
On June 25, the House of Representatives Committee on Consumer Protection, Technology and Public Services passed the bill with amendments, unanimously and without debate, in a meeting that lasted less than five minutesThe vote was greeted with cheers and laughter from lawmakers and lobbyists alike, and the meeting ended in record time.
The revised bill calmed some nerves. But environmentalists like Karen Feridun, co-founder of the Better Path Coalition, were still concerned. “SB 831 is a bad bill that no amount of amendments in the world will fix,” the Better Path Coalition said. he tweeted July 8. Feridun and other environmentalists said they fear the path that carbon dioxide follows underground could contaminate nearby wells or trigger explosions. letter In a letter sent to the House leadership in behind schedule June, a group of about 40 people expressed dissatisfaction with the bill because it was voted on by a House committee without holding a public hearing.
Feridun compares the development of carbon capture technology to the early days of fracking and the natural gas boom, when policymakers were also getting in on the act on a novel technology that little was known about at the time.
“Tonight, the Legislature ignored the lesson of fracking,” she said in a statement after the House vote. “So we start over.”
