HomeMy WebLinkAbout20140957 Ver 2_ACP public comments_20170721
Strickland, Bev
From:Dave Carlson <davebcarlson@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday, July 21, 2017 11:17 AM
To:SVC_DENR.publiccomments
Subject:ACP public comments
I'm Dave Carlson, a concerned citizen and resident of Holly Springs, NC. Building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
will have negative effects on North Carolina's streams and wetlands and it will also have a negative impact on
North Carolina's and the entire world's climate.
I passed high school Earth Science and Chemistry back in the early 1960's and learned then that carbon dioxide
was a greenhouse gas. I was disappointed but not shocked to find out that at a 1980 meeting of the American
Petroleum Institute's "CO2 and Climate Task Force," (designed to "monitor and share climate research"),
Professor John A. Laurmann of Stanford University briefed members of the American Petroleum Institute,
including researchers from Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Amoco, Phillips, Texaco, Shell, Sunoco and Sohio, among
others. "Laurmann estimated that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would double in 2038, which he said
would likely lead to a 2.5 degrees Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in global average temperatures with
'major economic consequences,'"... He then told the task force that models showed a 5 degrees Celsius rise by
2067, with 'globally catastrophic effects."
Now, I understand why the petroleum companies would not want to act on these findings, especially in the 80s,
before we had 40 years of data that confirms those estimates, but I do not understand how our state agencies
would not do everything possible to prevent such changes from happening.
Why we would jeopardize so many North Carolina streams and neighborhoods and our climate by building the
Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). It will only make money for a big corporation that wants to export hydrofracked
gas. Allowing the ACP to be built will enable and encourage more hydrofracking, a process already shown to
pollute the lands and aquifers where it is extracted. Subsequent burning of the hydrofracked gas will spew more
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which our scientists and the petroleum scientists agree causes global
warming. Why is North Carolina going to allow this pipeline to be built just so a few greedy people can make
more money? And who is going to pay for all the environmental cleanup when that bill comes due?
The ACP will inevitably rupture (all pipelines rupture, it's a question of when, not if) and spew harmful,
flammable natural gas. Our legislature has just taken a stand against nonpolluting, nonharmful wind
energy. How can we sleep at night, knowing we've continued to invest in harmful petrochemical infrastructure,
while handcuffing efforts to build non-polluting, renewable windfarms? Is it because those who invest in
windfarms have not made the same campaign contributions as our petrochemical companies? Are we going to
let greed rule our legislature? When will we stop investing in 20th century technology that is jeopardizing our
planet and invest in 21st century nonpolluting, renewable technology?
I strongly urge you to deny the construction of the ACP and show the world that North Carolina understands
science and cares about our environment.
Dave Carlson
3200 Mills Lake Wynd
Holly Springs, NC 27540
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