Fighting False Solutions
“Xcel’s plan is an opportunity to foster economic development that benefits Pueblo’s future. Wind and solar power will create new jobs, attract clean industries, and make our community healthier—without the pollution and risks that come with other energy sources. We need a real transition, not false solutions that continue to burn fossil fuels or gamble with untested technologies like nuclear or massive carbon capture facilities."
— Ean Tafoya, State Director, GreenLatinos Colorado
What are False Solutions?
The climate crisis is here in Colorado, fueled by our continued dependence on fossil fuels. Wildfires, extreme heat, and drought are risking the health and lives of communities across the state. To avoid even more catastrophic climate disasters, we must urgently transition away from fossil fuels—and we can. We have renewable, economical, and clean alternatives ready to deploy right now.
Unfortunately, instead of embracing a clean energy future, the oil and gas industry and corporate utilities are rebranding their climate-warming products to make them sound “clean” and “green”. They are also touting the climate benefits of untested technologies like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and dangerous and expensive sources of energy like Nuclear.
“Renewable” methane gas. Nuclear power. Carbon capture. These are false solutions.
Learn More about False Solutions
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Nuclear energy requires the extraction of rare minerals. The industry has a long history of causing environmental devastation through the West.
Today, the biggest issue nuclear faces is the extreme cost. Numerous projects in recent years have faced enormous cost overruns and cancellations.
Recently, an energy expert addressed the community of Pueblo. He said replacing the coal plant with nuclear is extremely unrealistic due to the high costs it would put on Xcel customers and the extremely long timelines needed to build nuclear facilities.
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Hydrogen gas is a potent, volatile fuel that can be burned instead of methane gas, or even mixed with gas in a process called hydrogen blending.
Hydrogen is produced through the process of electrolysis where the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water are separated using enormous amounts of electricity.
Hydrogen is extremely expensive compared to renewable energy and the vast majority of it is produced by burning methane gas. This is called "black" or "gray" hydrogen because it ends up causing a bigger environmental impact through burning fossil fuels than it ends up saving.
Making hydrogen requires lots of water, enormous power plants and ends up creating an extra step in the energy process that many experts believe is unnecessary when batteries and renewable energy can accomplishes the same goals.
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In a desperate attempt to rebrand and greenwash their harmful products, the oil and gas industry has recently invented the term "renewable natural gas" and "biogas."
The problem is that chemically, it's the exact same product: methane. Methane is a potent climate-warming gas that is used in power plants in our gas stoves, causing dangerous pollution when burned. "Renewable" natural gas usually comes from a variety of "recycled" sources like agricultural waste or dumps.
While that might sound like a good idea on paper, it's extremely expensive and unable to actually meet the demands. The American Gas Association says only 6-13% of gas demand comes from these sources. This is a marketing ploy meant to distract us from the industry's desire to drill gas endlessly.
photo credit: Christian O’Rourke
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Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is an unproven and highly risky set of processes where fossil fuels like coal and gas are burned and the carbon dioxide gas is captured and injected deep underground or into the sea.
It means that polluters are allowed to continue polluting AND charge customers even more for massive, dubious projects of removing that carbon.
Instead, it would be cheaper and less harmful to simply not burn the fuels in the first place. But that isn't stopping the marketing ploys by the industry.
