WEBVTT - Trump Supports This Climate Solution: Is That A Bad Thing? 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:12.320 Futuro investigates Investia. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.600 Dear Latino USA listener, before we start, you should know 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.000 that if you want to listen to this episode ad free, 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.840 just join plus and you can join for as little 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.800 as seven dollars a month. Joining also gets you behind 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.480 the scenes access and yes, some cheese may so click 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.199 the link in the episode description and after you do that, 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:42.520 then click play. Let's go to the show. 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.080 We're still following breaking news of a major gas league 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.840 in Yazoo County in your Highway four thirty three and Highway. 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.000 At around seven pm on a Saturday in late February, 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.240 residents of the small village of Starsha in Mississippi heard 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.360 a loud boom, the major gas lake in Yazoo Counties 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.000 and a whole town fleeing their homes after heavy rains. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:19.880 A pipeline carrying carbon dioxide or CO two ruptured. Ten 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.520 minutes after the rupture, the private company that ran the 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.720 pipelines close the main operating valves Forsatarsha, but in those 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.280 ten minutes, more than thirty thousand barrels of CO two 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:36.360 have been released into the air. Now residents started experiencing 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:37.959 symptoms and called nine. 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:42.440 One one I don't know if CONN they busted it, whatever, 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:44.440 but it's kind. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:45.640 Of My daughter had breathing problem. 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:47.920 She's on the floor right now. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:52.600 We'll got here. CO two is an asphyxient At high concentrations, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:54.040 you can't breathe. 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:59.880 Its crowd, you know bad in here. 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.680 The pipeline company didn't immediately notify local authorities about what 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:10.720 had happened, so first responders reacted without having all the details. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.200 Yes, we've got a ghastly up payer. 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:22.480 CO two displaces oxygen, so combustion engines like the ones 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.959 in regular vehicles don't work properly. In the event of 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:30.280 a CO two leak, Satasha ambulances had trouble responding to calls. 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:38.320 Some residents had to drive themselves to the hospital. In total, 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.480 forty five people were hospitalized for CO two poisoning that day, 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:49.960 and at least two hundred had to be evacuated. Years later, 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.800 some of Satasha's residents still report health problems related to 0:02:53.840 --> 0:03:04.800 the gas leak. After the Satarsha incident, there was a 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.320 two year investigation by the federal government, which found that 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.000 there were glaring gaps in how CO two pipelines were regulated, 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.679 so the government started working on new rules. By January 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.280 of this year, five years after the incident, there was 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.120 finally an official proposal with new regulations that would prevent 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:29.000 something like this from happening again, but the Trump administration 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:35.160 quickly rescinded them before they went into effect. Satarsha is 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.720 an example of what can happen when a CO two 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.640 pipeline ruptures and leaks, and in the years to come, 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.040 there could be tens of thousands more of these pipelines. 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.720 That's because private companies want to build them for something 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.440 called carbon capture and storage, which I'll get into later, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.440 but it's essentially a way to trap CO two to 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.520 keep it from going up in the atmosphere as a gas. 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:05.040 The plans include California, one of the most environmentally regulated states. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:08.640 And here's something to keep in mind. There's a federal 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.080 tax credit that helps fund carbon capture and storage projects. 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:17.240 And hear this. The Trump Administration's Big Beautiful Bill is 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.280 getting rid of or phasing out most environmentally friendly programs, 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.920 but not this one. In fact, the bill is not 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:30.360 only keeping it, it's going to expand it because depending 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.680 on who you ask, this is a critical way to 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:38.040 address the climate crisis or a subsidy for big oil. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.160 So we're going to California's Central Valley, where there's a 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.240 plan to build CO two pipelines. Many in the community 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:57.760 are afraid of its risks and unsure if it's benefits. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:05.120 From Fudromdia. It's Latino USA im Maria no Josa Today, 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.599 producer of Victoria Estrada, brings us a deep look into 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:15.000 carbon capture. It's a controversial technology that addresses the climate crisis, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:21.520 and we look at how it's being tested in California. 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.080 In twenty twenty four, the planet reached an all time 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.960 high of carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide or CO two, has 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.160 been proven to be one of the main factors that's 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.600 contributing to the planets warming. California, which is the fourth 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.719 largest economy in the world, has vowed to go carbon 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:47.560 neutral by twenty forty five. That means that it will 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:52.000 remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as it releases. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.320 To achieve that goal, specialized technologies are coming into the state, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:02.600 including the one we mentioned, carbon capture and storage. Latino 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:07.560 USA producer Victoria Estrada traveled to California Central Valley. That's 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:12.000 the place where many new carbon capture projects are being proposed, 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.719 and Victoria brings us this story. 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:21.240 I turned onto Buttonwellow Road, which turns into Elkell Road. 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.159 Kerr County is at the southernmost part of California Central Valley, 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.559 about two hours north of Los Angeles. This is fertile land. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.479 Kerrent County alone produces almost all of the carrots weed 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.359 in the United States. More than half of the population 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.160 here is Latino and a lot of them work in 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.600 the fields. There's a lot of trees. I'm not sure 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.120 what kind of fruit trees they are. There's another industry 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:49.479 that's also very present. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:50.520 Oil. 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.800 Yeah, that's the first wall. As I drove through the 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.840 Elk Hills oil field, I saw hills covered in pump 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.159 jacks machines that pull oil from the wells. Looks like 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:08.800 watching a dinosaur, you know. They're metal and look kind 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:12.480 of like giant hammers or pick axis with a polly 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.040 attached to one end of the head. I drove through 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.280 here because this is a place where the first carbon 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.720 capture and storage project in all of California is slated 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.680 to go up. The project is owned by the California 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.840 Resources Corporation, which is the largest oil and gas company 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:36.440 in the State. They're calling this project carbon terra vault Ie. 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.679 So what exactly is carbon capture and storage? Let me explain. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.680 Let's say you've got a coal fired power plant or 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:51.720 a natural gas plant that's emitting carbon dioxide, and on 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.000 top of the factory's chimney where the smoke comes out, 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.160 you put equipment to trap the CO two. Once captured, 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.240 the CO two go through a chemical process and it's 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.040 turned from gas into a type of liquid that you 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:10.120 can then inject underground to store Here in el Kills. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.080 The plan is to put the liquid CO two in 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:17.920 the underground deposits that used to hold oil, hopefully permanently 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:25.640 or at least for hundreds of years. Some people in 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.720 the community are nervous about the project, in part because 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:31.120 of oil companies behind it. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:33.640 We grow up with oil and gas wells in our 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:35.520 backyards next to schools. 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.559 This is CSA Aguirri. He works at the Central California 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:44.200 Environmental Justice Network in Bakersfield, Kerrent County's largest city. 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.320 There's so much cut corners in California oil and gas 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:49.520 law and enforcement. 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:54.240 He's seen firsthand how government regulations aren't always enough to 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:55.800 keep oil companies in check. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.840 The number One issue for a lot of government agencies 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.760 is capacity, and they don't have the manpower, they don't 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.880 have the hours, they don't have the needed tools in 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.600 order to properly inspect and respond to leaks because of 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.040 the vast amount of infrastructure that exists. 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.800 And looking at the possibility of a local carbon capture 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.240 project is making him recap the drawbacks of living in 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.520 a place with a strong oil industry. 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.720 In twenty fourteen, there was a pipeline leak that caused 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.120 eight families to be evacuated for nine months from their homes. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:32.560 And we have breaking news out of Arvin tonight where 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.239 several homes have been evacuated due to a potentially dangerous 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:41.600 gas leak. Flammable gases, including methane, had been accumulating underneath 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.120 the soil and started spreading to the houses. 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.559 Officials don't know how long the company's pipeline has been leaking. 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.400 And the gas leak it was discovered coming out of 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.680 the outlets of a room of a woman that was pregnant. 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.240 Residents in this neighborhood behind me say that they could 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:58.920 smell gas for several days. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.199 One in that house has chronic bloody noses or allergies. 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.160 One of the people that was living inside of that 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:07.360 house has lung cancer. 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.640 This wasn't an isolated event, says that and his team 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.679 have documented other leaks in Current County that want to 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:22.400 notice for months, even years, and the gas leaks, along 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.920 with other pollutants from the oil and agriculture industries, have 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.000 turned Current County into the place with the worst air 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:35.120 quality in the country. Kurrent County's Planning and Natural Resources 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.840 departments said they're imposing more than ninety measures to mitigate 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.400 risks on the Carbon Terrible project to prevent anything like 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.000 what happened in Mississippi. But since carving capture is an 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.400 industrial and chemical process that releases. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.400 Other pollutants, one of the biggest concerns is how is 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.560 this going to add to our pollution burden. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.920 There's also issues with the place where Carbon Terra Vault 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.320 is supposed to store the CO two Because there's so 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.559 many wells in the Elk Hills oil field, CO two 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.720 could leak through any unused well that hasn't been properly sealed. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.960 Plus this is a seismic area. Geologists estimate that there's 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:18.960 a twenty percent chance that an earthquake could damage the 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:27.160 project in the next hundred years. So despite all of 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.280 these questions, if this is a way to address the 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.600 climate crisis, our carbon capture projects worth it. 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.360 We actually have no information about the amount of money 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.880 that the American tacpayer is paying for this purported climate solution, 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.880 and whether or not it's a good deal, Like, are 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:47.080 we getting anything for it? 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:50.839 That's after the break. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:12:23.839 Stay with us. Yes, hey, we're back. And before the break, 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.600 we heard about a technology coming to California's Central Valley. 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.280 It's called carbon capture and storage. Supporters say it's a 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.400 way to address the climate crisis, but for others it 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.520 simply has way too many potentially deadly risks that the 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.720 New USA producer Victori Esta that is going to continue 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:43.960 the reporting now. 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:49.240 Carbon capture has been presented as a win win solution 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.319 for the climate crisis. It removes CO two from the atmosphere, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:57.319 it creates jobs, and it makes the oil industry, which 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.000 the country still relies on, heavily clean up. 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:04.160 There's dangers, there's concerns in every project in every kind 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.560 of industry, But if you're mitigating those is worth that 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.679 risk to supply jobs to people that need them. 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.440 Rick Garcia is president of the local chapter of the 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.920 League of United Latin American Citizens or LULAK, the largest 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:26.040 and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States. Rick is 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.920 retired now, but for decades he worked in the oil 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:33.920 industry as an environmental consultant. For him, the oil industry 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:35.079 means employment. 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.840 The fact that carbon capture keeps oil and gas going 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.280 in California, we're happy for that because we see the 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.160 benefits to the communities as far as jobs go. 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:50.840 Even of temporary Rick said. See the carbon Terravault one 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.880 project at the center of the story is expected to 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.679 create only about ten permanent positions and around eighty separate 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:04.079 temporary construction at the start. According to government data, only 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.360 three percent of jobs in Cerrent County are directly related 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.560 to oil and gas companies. That's about thirteen hundred people, 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.600 and just under half of those positions are held by Latinos. 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.280 There's many examples just right here in Button Willow of 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:24.080 kids from that came from farm labor backgrounds and they 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.120 were able to establish themselves, you know, either in solar 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:33.600 projects or wind or oil and gas, and we view 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.400 this carbon capture is another avenue for those type of jobs. 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.800 Not everyone agrees that carbon capture is a generator of 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:44.720 green jobs. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.600 It had been built as a climate solution, but this 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:51.520 is truly at its core and oil production subsidy. 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.680 This is Maggie Coulter. She's a senior attorney at the 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.000 Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. Maggie 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.760 takes issue at the way the federal government has been 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.640 promoting carbon capture and storage through a tax credit called 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:14.520 forty five Q. I know this is starting to sound 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.440 like an episode of severance, but stay with me. With 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.760 forty five Q, private companies get a tax break when 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.320 they take CO two and store it underground. But for Maggie, 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.560 the problem is that no one's actually checking that the 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.680 CO two is really being put away. 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:36.520 They're relying on either the company submitting independent third party 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:41.040 verification of the storage or a self certified verification that's 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:42.280 submitted to the EPA. 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:47.600 The IRS relies on the Environmental Protection Agency for verification, 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.440 but the EPA doesn't have a mandate to do an 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:56.160 independent verification, so they simply don't do it. 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.320 So there's really no true verification of the actual sequestration. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:07.720 It's a system based on trust, and that trust alone 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:12.200 it doesn't always work. A twenty twenty investigation by the 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.600 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that almost a 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.360 billion dollars had been improperly claimed under the forty five 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.840 Q tax credit one billion dollars. 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.120 And nothing has changed in the reporting mechanism since that investigation. 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.280 And there's more. Under the tax credit, companies can use 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.480 the CO two. They capture the CO two that they're 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.120 supposed to turn into liquid and store safely underground for 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.120 at least one hundred years, they can use that to 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.840 actually pull more oil from the ground. 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.280 It's injected into an existing oil well and used as 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.640 a surfactant to scrub out additional oil in what's calling 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:54.000 enhanced oil recovery. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.840 If you're confused, you're not alone. It took me a second, 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.760 Okay more than a second to process that the same 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.360 carbon dioxide that these private companies are saying they're trapping 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.119 to keep it away from us and getting massive tax 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.359 credits and doing so, they're not actually getting rid of 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.040 the carbon. They're in fact using it to pump more oil. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.000 Around eighty percent of the money claimed under this program 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:24.720 has been used for enhanced oil recovery, or as Maggie 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:31.040 plainly put it earlier, a subsidy for oil production. The 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:36.520 irony wasn't lost on California lawmakers, so in twenty twenty two, 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.280 the state passed the law banning the use of carbon 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:44.639 capture for enhanced oil recovery. But Trump's One Big Beautiful 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.440 Act expanded the forty five C credit so that companies 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.240 can get more money if they use the COEO too, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.520 they capture specifically for enhanced oil recovery. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:59.040 Why we're giving a tax credit for a production of 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.679 a pollutant. It's almost like a climate fraud. There's no 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:07.400 proof that any of this technology is actually benefiting our atmosphere. 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:14.520 Last year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:19.360 estimated that taxpayers could be handing over eight hundred billion 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.680 dollars to private oil companies under this tax credit. That's 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.200 almost three times California state budget for the next fiscal year. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:34.480 Last October, the Kerrent County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.480 the permit for the Carbon Terable one project. 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.679 On favor or please guests your votes the motion has 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:41.800 approved all eyes. 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.720 A few months later, the EPA also approved the project. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.840 The permit allows the California Resources Corporation to inject CO 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.879 two into the Elk Hills oil field for twenty six 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.400 years before they can start the project. The EPA required 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:07.200 the company to seal two hundred wells where carbon dioxide 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.920 is expected to migrate during the project, two hundred out 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.760 of thousands of existing wells in that field. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:44.639 We'll be right back. Hey, we're back. Here's producer Victory 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:46.520 Estra with the rest of the story. 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.880 Since at least the nineteen sixties, oil and gas companies 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.920 had known that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.840 but they work to keep this from the public. They 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.960 undermined the negative effects. Instead went on a pr campaign 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:06.080 to tout their environmental efforts, like this chevron ad from 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:07.280 nineteen eighty five. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.879 On the coast of California, Will big jets reach for 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:16.040 the sky and one of the smallest endangered species quietly 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.800 reaches for its dinner on land that's part of an 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:20.719 oil refinery. 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.040 The video assumes in on a very small blue butterfly. 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.199 It looks like a cross between a nature video and 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:29.160 tourism ad. 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.120 People who work there protect the area and plant buckwet. 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:37.199 Fast forward to today, and oil companies are evolving their campaigns, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.840 from explicit denial of the science of climate change to 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.720 misleading information about their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.320 This was a finding in a twenty twenty four report 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.480 that came out of a three year investigation by Democratic 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.160 staff of the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:04.600 The report was called Denial, Disinformation, and doublespeak Big Oil's 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:10.200 evolving efforts to avoid accountability for climate change. The report 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.840 says that oil companies are presenting carbon capture to the 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.640 public as a viable solution to greenhouse gas emissions without 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.520 acknowledging all of the issues with the technology. These private 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.199 oil companies are forking up huge sums of money for 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.520 extensive media campaigns promoting this technology. 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.040 The wor all needs ways to reduce carbon emissions. We 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.840 are working on solutions in our own operations, like carbon capture. 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:43.840 While this is our front facing stance. The report shows 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:48.520 that behind closed doors, companies talk about carbon capture as 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:52.040 a way to prolong the use of fossil fuels. They 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:56.400 also recognize that it's costly to scale. Internal documents subpoenut 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:00.119 by Congress show oil companies aren't willing to invest in 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.000 the technology to actually make this a climate solution, and 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:08.680 instead are pursuing taxpayer dollars for these projects, even though 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:12.840 in recent years fossil fuel companies have reported tens of 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:26.640 billions of dollars in record profits. After the incident in Satarsha, Mississippi, 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.560 California put in place a partial moratorium on CO two 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:35.560 pipeline construction until new federal guidelines were published. For now, 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:40.520 California Resources Corporation, the company behind the carbon project in 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:44.199 the Central Valley, can only build pipelines to transport CO 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.960 two within their own property. But after the Trump administration 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:53.080 didn't allow for new regulations, there's been pressure on the 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.360 state Congress to lift the moratorium. 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:58.679 We feel that momentum is there and the moratorium should 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:00.560 be lifted later this year. 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.240 This is audio from an earnings call of the California 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:05.400 Resources Corporation. 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.160 So once that unlocks, then the ability to talk about 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:11.440 a meters, to be able to talk about the business 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:12.960 model is going to start. 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:14.120 Crystallizing a lot more. 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:16.919 But we need that physical connectivity that comes with two 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:18.040 pipelines being approved. 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.720 Right now, there are fifteen carbon capture plants already operating 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.920 in a handful of states, in the US, including Texas 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.800 and Wyoming, but so far the results are not impressive. 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.800 These facilities only capture less than half of one percent 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:35.679 of the country's total emissions. 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:44.080 Here in the Central Valley. It's kind of a sacrifice 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:46.000 zone for the rest of California. 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:50.040 This is says that again with the nonprofit Central California 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:56.000 Environmental Justice Network, a coalition of organizations including CESSAS, sued 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:58.679 Current County over the recent permits. 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:00.560 It's always in the Central Valley. It's always in the 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:03.320 rural communities. It's always where they see so little value 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:04.920 in the lives of the people that live inside those 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:07.479 communities to say, hey, you know what, we should make 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:10.840 sure that something safe and find better alternatives before we 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:12.200 treat you like guinea pigs. 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:16.320 The question lingers whether carbon capture and storage is an 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:20.280 effective way to deal with the climate crisis. A study 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:23.000 of these projects from around the world has shown that 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:27.240 most of them can be considered failures, either because they 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:32.840 significantly underperform in their CO two capture goals or because 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:35.200 they shut down after a few years of operation. 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.119 People kind of feel like, well, we're being treated like 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:40.840 a dump, right, That's why is it that they have 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:43.080 to put it underneath us. Why wouldn't they put this 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:44.160 in richer neighborhoods. 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:48.000 We reached out to the current county Planning and Natural 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:51.639 Resources Department for this story, and they reply that they 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:55.640 don't comment on projects that are in litigation. The EPA, 0:24:55.840 --> 0:24:58.399 for its part, said that they only review whether a 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:03.040 project in dangers under ground sources of drinking water. Anything 0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:07.560 else is outside of their scope. The California Resources Corporation 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:15.560 didn't reply to our request for comment for the story. 0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:19.000 At one of the public hearings that were held last 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:23.200 year to discuss the Carbon Terrible One project in Kerrent County, 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:26.720 there was a lot of debate about the possible jobs 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:30.840 and tax revenue this could create versus the dangers and 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:32.880 uncertainty of carbon capture. 0:25:33.480 --> 0:25:37.000 This project is focused on improving the environment. I already 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:37.880 have in my family. 0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:41.440 Children work cancert with asthma, even congenital. 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:44.720 There'll be jobs that last for years and years. 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:48.280 I understand the need for work, but enough is enough. 0:25:49.720 --> 0:25:53.000 Between all the back and forth, a young community member 0:25:53.240 --> 0:25:56.280 made his way up to the podium, and that really 0:25:56.280 --> 0:25:57.600 put things into perspective. 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:02.360 I want this to happen because us. It's scary because oh, 0:26:02.400 --> 0:26:06.720 that's why you cannot breathe and you can maybe pass 0:26:06.880 --> 0:26:09.879 or setting. So we don't want that happen. We just 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:12.840 don't want that happen because we won't all want to 0:26:12.880 --> 0:26:13.360 stay here. 0:26:18.280 --> 0:26:21.320 Unwittingly, that kid may have spoken on behalf of his 0:26:21.520 --> 0:26:26.040 future children or grandchildren. We won't be here to see 0:26:26.320 --> 0:26:30.280 all of the consequences of the decisions made today trying 0:26:30.320 --> 0:26:34.560 to address the climate crisis, but they surely will. 0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:02.719 This episode was produced by Victoria Strada. It was edited 0:27:02.720 --> 0:27:06.960 by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. It was mixed by Julia Caruso. 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:11.959 Fact checking for this episode by Roxanna Aguire. Fernando Echavari 0:27:12.240 --> 0:27:16.280 is our managing editor. The Latino USA team also includes 0:27:16.800 --> 0:27:22.320 Jessica Ellis Rinaldo, Leanoz Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Luis Luna Biori, 0:27:22.400 --> 0:27:28.960 mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, JJ Carubin, 0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:34.480 and Nancy Trujillo. Our intern is Diego Perdomo, Benni Leamres 0:27:34.520 --> 0:27:38.000 and I are co executive producers and I'm your host 0:27:38.200 --> 0:27:41.680 Mariano JSA. Latino USA is part of Iheart's Michael Dura 0:27:41.760 --> 0:27:45.840 Podcast Network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and 0:27:46.040 --> 0:27:48.919 Arlene Santana. Join us again on our next episode. In 0:27:48.960 --> 0:27:50.720 the meantime, I'll see you on all of our social 0:27:50.760 --> 0:27:56.240 media and remember Gerido Guerida. Join Futuro Plus. You'll be 0:27:56.280 --> 0:27:58.480 able to listen to the show at free, and you'll 0:27:58.480 --> 0:28:01.920 get bonus episodes, plus cheese me and by joining, you'll 0:28:01.960 --> 0:28:04.520