Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Chuy Garcia (D-IL) sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday urging him to issue an executive order putting a moratorium on any federal permitting of new carbon pipelines and related infrastructure.
The letter is also signed by Reps. Jamaal Bowman, André Carson, Raúl Grijalva, Jared Huffman, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerrold Nadler, Delia Ramirez, and.
It is endorsed by Food and Water Watch, Sierra Club, Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, Progressive Democrats of America, Center for Biological Diversity, Bold Alliance, Center for International Environmental Law, Climate Justice Alliance, and 350.org. Over 150 groups recently sent a similar letter calling for a carbon pipeline moratorium.
“We urge you to issue an Executive Order declaring a moratorium on any federal permitting of new carbon pipelines and related infrastructure until PHMSA’s safety regulations are finalized,” the lawmakers wrote. “We further request that the Administration direct PHMSA [Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration] to consider the unique hazards of CO2 and the knowledge gaps about CO2 transportation safety to ensure we do not have more disasters like the one that happened in Satartia, Mississippi.”
“As an invisible and odorless asphyxiant, CO2 spewing from a ruptured pipeline can suffocate humans and animals without notice,” they added. “Transporting CO2 under the extremely high pressure required to maintain a supercritical fluid state can cause ruptures that “unzip” a pipeline over long distances, allowing CO2 to escape before the flow can be stopped. Due to the risk posed by carbon pipelines, PHMSA’s updated safety rules must be in place before the Administration issues any permits for new CO2 pipelines.”
“Communities across the country are opposing these carbon capture pipelines because they understand the risks they pose to their health and safety. We applaud Representative Omar and Representative Garcia for leading this effort to stop dangerous pipelines from transporting carbon dioxide through communities. President Biden needs to use his authority to immediately enact a moratorium on permits for these dangerous projects,” said Jim Walsh, Policy Director, Food & Water Watch
Since existing regulations were primarily designed to address the transport of hazardous hydrocarbon liquids like crude oil and refined petroleum product, they do not encompass pipelines transporting CO2 as a gas or subcritical liquid. These substances carry significantly different safety risks compared to CO2. CO2, being an odorless subcritical fluid, poses severe risks if leaked from pipelines, potentially leading to unnoticed fatalities among both animals and humans. In 2020, the Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines in Satartia, Mississippi, ruptured, resulting in numerous residents being hospitalized and necessitating evacuations, even for people miles away from the incident.
You can read the full letter here and below.
Dear President Biden,
We write regarding our shared goal to implement policy initiatives that will address the catastrophic effects of climate change on public health and the ongoing rulemaking at the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) concerning the transport of carbon dioxide (CO2) via pipelines. While we are pleased the agency is working on updating regulations to improve the safety of this process, we urge you to issue an Executive Order declaring a moratorium on any federal permitting of new pipelines that transport CO2 and related infrastructure until PHMSA’s carbon dioxide pipeline safety regulation are finalized.
As an invisible and odorless asphyxiant, CO2 spewing from a ruptured pipeline can suffocate humans and animals without notice. Transporting CO2 under the extremely high pressure required to maintain a supercritical fluid state can cause ruptures that “unzip” a pipeline over long distances, allowing CO2 to escapebefore the flow can be stopped. Due to the risk posed by carbon pipelines, PHMSA’s updated safety rules must be in place before the Administration issues any permits for new CO2 pipelines.
A recent report commissioned by the Pipeline Safety Trust highlights several significant issues with current regulations including an inadequate definition of CO2, unreliable incidents data, the complexity of CO2 transport, massive and undetermined impact areas for ruptures, corrosiveness of CO2 combined with common impurities, and significant risks to first responders to name a few. Unfortunately, current regulations do not cover pipelines transporting CO2 as a gas or subcritical liquid, and are tailored to address the transport of hydrocarbon hazardous liquids, such as crude oil and refined petroleum products, which carry vastly different safety risks.
Our concerns are exemplified by the 2020 rupture of a pipeline, operated by Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines, transporting CO2 in Satartia, Mississippi. The Satartia rupture caused dozens of residents–even those miles away–to be evacuated and hospitalized, and posed significant challenges for first responders who were ill-equipped to respond to such an emergency. New pipeline infrastructure will invariably put more communities in danger given the complexity of transporting CO2thousands of miles with what could create dozens of points of entry and exit for CO2.
Since PHMSA has authority over the safety of CO2 pipelines, states confront preemption issues, restricting their ability to protect residents from the dangers CO2 pipelines pose. The absence of strong regulations leaves urban and frontline communities at greater risk, as carbon capture and storage, which depends on CO2 pipelines to function, rises in prominence. We are pleased that PHMSA is expected to release updated CO2 regulations in 2024. However, as portions of this rule will not retroactively apply to pipelines that have already been constructed, a moratorium is necessary to protect communities from the construction of pipelines that we know will soon be operated under outdated safety standards. In addition, at least some of the proposed carbon dioxide pipelines will be completely free of federal safety standards until PHMSA’s rules are updated.
We urge you to issue an Executive Order declaring a moratorium on any federal permitting of new carbon pipelines and related infrastructure until PHMSA’s safety regulations are finalized. We further request that the Administration direct PHMSA to consider the unique hazards of CO2 and the knowledge gaps about CO2 transportation safety to ensure we do not have more disasters like the one that happened in Satartia, Mississippi.
