One Family’s Fight Against Big Oil’s Biggest Boondoggle: CCS
by Mia DiFelice
Read the online article HERE
In Colorado, the Hume family has fought hazardous gas and CCS infrastructure near their home and farm for years. This is what they want other landowners to know.
The story of the Hume family in Peetz, Colorado, is being repeated all over the country. Amidst the daily labors and joys of making a living, raising a family, and steadily pursuing their dreams, an energy corporation came in and turned their lives upside down.
Tallgrass Energy converted the former gas pipeline Trailblazer to carry carbon dioxide (CO2) — without securing the rights to transport this new substance through the Humes’ property. To make up for the gas once transported by Trailblazer, Tallgrass has also built new gas infrastructure, including a compressor station right across the road from the Humes’ property.
“We received a letter in 2022 about the project,” said Kari Hume, plaintiff in Hume v. Tallgrass Energy and mother of seven. “But it didn’t explain that a new compressor station would be built right next door, nor did it inform us of the hazards.”
The 44-year-old Trailblazer pipeline, which runs a mere 800 feet from their home, now transports hazardous compressed CO2. Meanwhile, Oil & Gas Watch reports that the compressor station will release up to 12,600 pounds of hazardous air pollutants each year.
The Hume family now finds themselves on the front lines of Big Oil’s biggest boondoggle: carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS purports to help the climate by capturing CO2 at polluting facilities and burying it deep underground. In this case, Trailblazer carries captured CO2 from ethanol plants in Nebraska to underground wells in Wyoming. But the truth is, CCS is a failed technology that greenwashes polluting companies.
The Humes have made the difficult decision to leave their land and the life they’ve built on it. But first, they’re pursuing justice and recompense through legal action. And they’re sharing their story and advocating for policy change so that others can avoid facing the same decision.
In this interview, we sat down with Kari to talk about her family’s experience, the dangers of this infrastructure, and how people facing polluting projects anywhere can fight back. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
