New Mexico bill first step toward carbon storage

Yahoo News (AP) ^ | January 30, 2010 | Susan Montoya Bryan

[Cheap_Hessian]

SANTA FE, N.M. – Rancher Jack Chatfield sees untapped value in the spaces that lie beneath New Mexico's dusty landscape. But he said the state needs to first decide who owns them.

Scientists are looking at underground fissures and caverns as places where carbon dioxide emissions captured from fossil fuel power plants can be stored. Carbon emissions are among the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The underground space also could store compressed air as part of a process to generate clean electricity.

"This is a huge issue for our society today. It's technology that is on the cutting edge and if New Mexico blinks, we'll be left in the dust. Let's don't do that. Let's be ready," said Chatfield, who is leading an effort to settle the ownership of the underground spaces in the New Mexico Legislature.

The ownership of the spaces has become a hot topic across the West. Wyoming was the first state to tackle pore space ownership. Montana and North Dakota followed, and dozens of states — from Texas to Michigan — are considering legislation that would lay the groundwork for carbon capture and sequestration.

[Tammy8]

I am confused~ don’t the NM laws about mineral rights cover what is under your land? My father had a ranch in Colorado that he sold in the 1960s and kept the mineral rights and the wording on his property description covered anything beneath the surface...

I am also confused about capturing carbon air or whatever?? Can we say scam~ though I would rather see a NM rancher get rich off of this than liberal politicians like Al Gore...