Colorado does not need more deep injection wells

Colorado Senate Bill SB-016, sponsored by Senator Chris Hansen, has fourteen parts. Thirteen are simple and good legislation but Number 7, sandwiched between the others, is not good for Colorado. It directs Colorado to build deep injection wells to sequester CO2.

It makes no sense for Colorado to expend money to sequester CO2 as Xcel Energy plans to generate 80% of Colorado’s electricity with renewables by 2030. Money would be much better spent enabling the use of renewable energy.

An extensive investigation of deep injection wells by investigative organization Pro Publica entitled “Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us” reveals that “industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth. … Wells drilled to bury this waste deep beneath the ground have repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation’s drinking water.”

University of Colorado researchers are currently investigating the seismicity of land near deep injection wells.

The fact that fossil fuel companies are encouraging the sequestering of CO2 is revealed in documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee and since released to the public. The Intercept, an investigative news organization, reviewed the documents and they report that, “The industry wants to see so much government funding for carbon capture locked in that there’s no choice but to continue down that path.”

— Shirley Jin, Boulder