Colorado ponders carbon storage in defunct oil and gas wells
CTV
Millions of deserted oil and gas wells plunge thousands of feet into the earth after fossil fuels have been pumped out, combusted and released as carbon dioxide. They have long been symbols of pollution. Colorado lawmakers are considering a new solution that would give these wells a redemptive purpose: deep receptacles to trap carbon for millennia.
From Colorado's high desert to the wooded hills of northwest Pennsylvania, millions of deserted oil and gas wells plunge thousands of feet into the earth after fossil fuels have been pumped out, combusted and released as carbon dioxide. They have long been symbols of pollution.
Colorado lawmakers are considering a new solution that would give these wells a redemptive purpose: deep receptacles to trap carbon for millennia.
The idea is to keep carbon locked away in biochar -- a special type of carbon-rich charcoal that's made from burning organic matter such as plants at high heat and little to no oxygen. The hope is that defunct oil and gas wells could be plugged using biochar. This would not only filter dangerous gas leaks but also keep carbon out of the atmosphere and prevent it from forming carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Lawmakers in Colorado's Democrat-controlled statehouse want to launch a study to assess if biochar would work to plug orphaned wells, and they plan to discuss it Thursday afternoon.
If successful, experts say using biochar to help fill a portion of the over 3 million abandoned oil wells nationwide could help slow climate change.
The bill would, in part, direct Colorado State University to review current research and run new tests to answer several questions. Those include the efficacy of biochar's filtration properties, the tonnage of carbon that could be sequestered, and even how the substance would interact with its subterranean environment.
Carbon naturally cycles through Earth's ecosystems, floating in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide before being snatched up by little bluestem grasses, ingested by grazing bison on the prairie, and when the animal keels over and begins decomposing, returning to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
