THORNTON, Calif. — Surrounded by cornfields and cows, this gas-and-go exit off Interstate 5 south of Sacramento seems an unlikely place to solve global warming.
But for months, researchers have been quietly negotiating with a local farming family to bury carbon dioxide -- the world's leading greenhouse gas -- below their tomato fields northeast of town.
The experiment will test whether carbon dioxide produced by power plants could be pumped deep underground to keep it from venting into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change.
"I think it's a grand idea; you don't know if something will work until you try it," said Edward Lopes, 67, one of six siblings who will sit down this week to decide whether to allow the experiment beneath their fields. "I'm all for it, but if the others aren't interested, that's fine."
Scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory say they zeroed in on this tiny delta town halfway between Stockton and Sacramento because it sits atop one of the largest natural underground gas storage sites in North America.
Seventy million years ago, an ancient inland sea created a dome of hard rock, forming an underground cap over porous, briny sandstone that could absorb several billion tons of gas, according to project scientists.
"There are geologic formations in the Central Valley that have enormous potential. We could potentially sequester several hundred years' worth of California's carbon dioxide there," said Larry Myer, head of the research team.
The team is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, five other Western states, and a private natural gas company that hopes to flush lucrative methane from the earth as the carbon dioxide is buried.
If all goes as planned, hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 eventually could be siphoned from power plants and shipped via pipeline for burial under the Central Valley in a process known as carbon capture and sequestration, Myer said.
The strategy has been identified by a U.N. panel on climate change as a major option for slowing global warming. The U.S. leads the world in carbon dioxide emissions, putting 7 billion tons annually into the atmosphere. Nearly 40% comes from power plants that provide the nation's electricity.
Using carbon capture and sequestration, energy experts say, Americans could continue to power their lifestyle with plentiful coal while keeping greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere
