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Published on: 2/25/2008
Last Visited: 4/25/2008
The state's massive network of underground mines and wells means Pennsylvania could play a key role in carbon sequestering, said John Quigley, director of strategic initiatives at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, or DCNR.
State officials have formed a task force , the Carbon Management Advisory Group , to determine how Pennsylvania's natural resources could help combat global warming.
Quigley and other state officials assume carbon dioxide will become regulated under the next presidential administration.
"The world is going to change under carbon regulation," Quigley said."We are looking at the state's resources through a carbon lens."
The move is part environmental and part economic.
In theory, if companies are forced to make substantial reductions in their carbon emissions, capturing the gases and storing them underground could be a long-term solution, Quigley said.
And if Pennsylvania has mapped the locations of unused mines and gas wells and documents their storage capacity before that happens, the state could attract businesses looking to ditch their carbon, Quigley said.