Some time ago, Fred Sparber mentioned that the vast CO2 deposits in New
Mexico are being commercialized rapidly.
The tree-huggers first response: GMWAR ("gag me with a rat"). Letting
that stuff out of the ground - at a time when we want utilities to pump
it back in - is like 'adding insult to injury' to the Sierra Club - a
double-dose of toxicity.
It did not register at the time, but there is a bright-side: these wells
could provide an equally vast amount of Algoil - if the greenhouse-gas
were pumped into ponds for aquaculture. This could even be accomplished
after that "other use". It still is not carbon neutral, but at least it
isn't carbon double.
The major megabuck market for the CO2 nowadays is to free-up petroleum
from old oilfield deposits, mostly in W. Texas, where the remaining
crude in the Permian Basin is too 'sticky' or thick, or deep, to be
pumped out normally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian_Basin
Many of these wells were abandoned years ago but are now being revived
and reinvigorated, due to confluence of the high price of oil AND the
availability of cheap CO2. A long pipeline has been built from NM and
Colorado to West Texas for the purpose of bringing this otherwise
useless and deadly CO2 to the abandoned oil wells. There is a certain
cruel irony there, from Gaia's point of view, no?
http://tinyurl.com/yv59th
or
http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070203_1.htm
Had DoE planners been smarter, it is arguable that they would have
forced these CO2 wells to be closed (who needs gratuitous CO2!) and
instead given incentives for the coal-fired utility companies in Texas
pump their effluent from the other side of the state to the wells, to
eliminate the problem of a "double dose" of greenhouse gas. Of course,
the problem there is getting the nitrogen out of the effluent, so that
it can be pumped cheaply. Its mostly nitrogen otherwise.
Since the "Branson Membrane" for doing this is not yet a reality, then
that shortcoming explains why there was little incentive for planners to
get involved yet. Therefore the present ecological dilemma is this: is
there an equitable solution to eliminating the double-dose-problem,
given that all this cheap CO2 is available, and given that we need the
oil from these depleted fields ?
Actually, some of the cheapest non-desert farmland in the USA is located
near these West Texas ratlands - normally it can only be used for grazing.
... that is - once the mineral rights are sold- the surface land is not
very productive or costly - due to low rainfall in the growing season
(formerly this was part of the 'dust bowl'), BUT this land could be
ideal for aquaculture, since there is adequate winter rain most of the
time, often under-utilized. This is true all over the former dust bowl:
flat, cheap, grazing land but with enough rain to support aquaculture,
if were captured.
Today, Midland's economy is booming and still relies heavily on
petroleum, as it did 50 years ago, when you would be driving across the
prairie and see these skyscrapers popping-up out of nowhere ...
...that is, thanks to cheap CO2 - and the 'double-dose' of toxicity, the
Basin is Booming again. The re-invigorated Permian oil fields supply 20%
of the USA petroleum- as much as the Alaska Pipeline. Lots of investment
capital here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland%2C_Texas
Hey - with some encouragement - and a lot of investment put into
aquaculture - the percentage of fuel produced could be much more, due to
algoil. In order to reuse the CO2 - why not convert it into biofuel ?
(actually much of it could be reused on site, as its solubility in crude
is not depleted by one use, but it is so cheap that it is often not
recaptured).
Anyway - the above was just a redeeming thought- recompense for having
missed the opportunity to do something 'green' on Earth-Day -
...but anyway, one suspects that the oil-barons of Midland, knowing-well
the value of a well, so-to-speak, and a buck; and basically not caring
as to whether the bounty comes from present day algae (green gold) or
billion year old algae (black gold)... these guys are probably already
onto this idea, even if it is for another kind of green: folding-green,
so to speak ...
Jones
