(MASSAPEQUA, N.Y.) A letter signed by over 500 groups, including the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LIPC), was sent to leading U.S. policymakers on Monday to demand an end of government support for carbon capture technologies, according to a statement from the Center for Environmental Law.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) are processes that collect carbon emissions before they get into the atmosphere. The carbon is then stored underground or repurposed for industrial activity, according to the Center for Environmental Law.
The LIPC signed on to the letter, which was addressed to President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to make the case that CCS is not an appropriate climate solution and request the government withdraw its support for the idea.
The letter said,
"Carbon capture is not a climate solution. To the contrary, investing in carbon capture delays the needed transition away from fossil fuels and other combustible energy sources, and poses significant new environmental, health and safety risks, particularly to Black, brown and Indigenous communities already overburdened by industrial pollution, dispossession and the impacts of climate change."
It continued, "CCS does not halt the core drivers of the climate crisis — fossil fuel production and consumption — or meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, it prolongs reliance on fossil fuels and, perversely, increases oil production through 'enhanced oil recovery.' CCS is neither economically sound nor feasible at scale. And most alarmingly, it threatens the communities affected by carbon capture infrastructure and the underlying sources of emissions to which the technology is attached. Simply put, technological carbon capture is a dangerous distraction."
Read the full letter by clicking here.