Community Perceptions of Geologic Sequestration

Political momentum for mitigating climate change through the use of large-scale energy technologies such as geologic sequestration is growing. This paper explores the views of communities living near an actual or potential geologic sequestration project site. Given the potential importance of geologic sequestration to U.S. energy policy, what might explain and influence the views of this technology by the community-members. Through focus groups and one-on-one interviews, we gathered the views of two communities in California's Central Valley. One community close to a Department of Energy sponsored geologic sequestration pilot-project and another similarly located community that is not actually a project site. Our analysis combined a review of the history of the communities with other technologies and their social and economic indicators with the results of the focus groups and interviews. The results suggest that the sense of community empowerment, as contextualized by the history of the community and socio-economic indicators, is an important indicator of positive views of geologic sequestration. In addition, the results indicate community members prefer to be informed about geologic sequestration from a variety of sources (e.g., academia and industry).