One hot summer day two years ago, Kathy Stockdale checked her mailbox and found a slip of paper that would change her life. The humble notice revealed that two carbon capture companies wanted to seize part of her family’s farmland in Hardin County, Iowa, for a pair of pipelines slated to pass through it. But Stockdale wasn’t going to give up her property without a fight.
Environmentalists might not seem like a natural ally in a battle against green technology, but they have concerns about the growing U.S. web of carbon capture pipelines—which currently includes more than 5,300 miles of conduit. And carbon capture technology continues to gain traction nationwide; the Biden administration recently announced that it would spend up to $1.
A study released in May found that carbon capture pipelines are more likely to experience small punctures than large ruptures such as the one in Satartia. Smaller holes release the gas at a slower rate, which makes them harder to locate. And a delayed response to smaller punctures could cause them to be deadly.
Beyond their safety concerns, experts question whether carbon capture and storage is even an effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gases. Noah Planavsky, an isotope geochemist at Yale University’s Center for Natural Carbon Capture, says the practice would certainly reduce the CO2 in the air—but the overall situation is not that simple. “It’s not whether or not it’ll remove carbon. It will remove carbon,” Planavsky says.