The potential for underground injections to cause earthquakes
was thought to be a problem for natural gas, but a new National
Research Council study says the impacted sector will not be gas.
It’s a problem for coal. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS),
pulling carbon out of emissions from coal-burning and storing it
deep underground, has been prominent in clean energy planning
over the last decade as a way to keep taking advantage of coal
resources to meet energy demand while tackling climate change.
But the new study finds the large-scale CCS needed to keep using
coal “may have the potential for causing significant induced
seismicity,” study chair Murray Hitzman, professor at the
Colorado School of Mines, told the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee June 19. The study was requested by
Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman in 2010, who wanted a
“comprehensive and independent study” of whether energy-related
activities could inadvertently cause earthquakes. They Felt the
Earth Move He made the request