Written by John Glassco   

Heard about the huge Aliso Canyon gas leak disaster in California?

This failed engineering project used depleted underground oil well fields for the storage of natural gas (methane.) This idea was hatched by a private energy company, SoCalGas to save the cost of building an above-ground storage tank. They saw these abandoned empty wells as ready-made storage tanks. Well one of the ancient wells over the stash just blew a leak. A giant, wasteful, obvious, hazardous, uncontrollable leak.

"Oops." Since this Aliso Canyon disaster, all ancient oil fields are now perpetually suspect as part of any scheme for pumping good or bad fluids underground to any depth or for any reason. This hesitation will affect ALL of the underground energy club, especially their latest two fair-haired boys, carbon capture and sequestration.

The coal, oil, and gas industries are promoting carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) to "cure" the carbon "problem." Their proposal is to do exactly as SoCal has done with their excess gas, by using depleted oil fields to stash all of their waste carbon - for ever. Handy, tidy, cheap, and probably secure - except for this icky sticky Christmas story. . . . . . .

To "solve" the carbon issue, they have groomed no other option. They will lobby to continue having us use the air we breathe as their slag heap. Getting rid of carbon so far has not cost them a single dime, and they like it that way.

The idea behind their carbon capture scheme being sold to us lately is the idea of stashing (or using their word "sequestering") compressed carbon-dioxide gas from coal and gas fired power plants, and presumably from cars too, into empty oil wells under tremendous pressure.

Sorry big energy, Hello. It will take a while for this to sink in, but the feasibility of carbon capture and sequestration is now officially dead, or at least on life support, ever since Aliso Canyon.

Perhaps it is time for you and your lobby to do the hard work of looking seriously at alternative energy to "keep the lights on," rather than a gimmick. Your Hail-Mary pass, known as carbon capture and sequestration, has just been ruled "incomplete." Couldn't happen to a nicer person.