Berkeley – Last night, Food & Water Watch and members of the newly formed Communities Against Carbon Transport and Injection (CACTI) Coalition gathered to screen a new, powerful documentary by Barbara Bernstein, Chasing Chimeras: The Lure of Deceptive Climate Solutions, and alert Bay Area residents to the growing threat of fossil fuel industry schemes.  

Chasing Chimeras exposes how the fossil fuel industry is pushing false climate scams, like renewable diesel, hydrogen, biogas, and carbon capture. It takes a deep dive into the real-world impacts of the deceptive climate scams threatening frontline communities and delaying real climate action.

One such industry scheme featured in the documentary is the Montezuma Carbon Hub, a proposed 45-mile carbon dioxide pipeline and waste injection well that could transport CO2 from sources such as power plants and refineries via pipelines – including underwater pipelines – through the Bay Area and ultimately inject it underground near the Suisun Marsh. It would be the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the Bay Area. It would threaten the surrounding area’s health and prolong the life of the fossil fuel industry in an area already burdened by decades of pollution. 

“Chasing Chimeras’s exposé of fossil fuel industry schemes has never been more poignant, especially after California’s dismal legislative session,” said Isabel Penman, Food & Water Watch Northern California Organizer. “Instead of using this session to promote the truly sustainable, renewable clean energy future Californians need and deserve, legislators caved to industry pressure and passed bills that make the threats of these industry schemes even more real to community members.”  

The CACTI Coalition launched earlier this month to alert Bay Areas to the harms of CCS projects and CO2 pipelines, including the Montezuma Carbon Hub. ​​