The Carbon Capture Dream Bumps Up Against Reality In Texas – CleanTechnica

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Carbon capture — oh, what a wonderful, magical idea! Take all that nasty carbon dioxide that is making the planet warmer, suck it out of the air, and pump it underground. Presto! Shazam!! Problem solved. Sit back, grab a beer, and watch the global thermometer return to where it was in the ’50s, when father knew best, the family ate dinner together every evening at 6 o’clock, and the future was so bright we had to wear shades!

There are a few technical details to be worked out first, like how to actually extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a cost of under $600 a ton or how to scale the process up so that instead of capturing several thousand pounds of the stuff every year, we can address the fact that we are pumping billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air around us every year. But don’t be too concerned about such details. We will solve the technical issues soon enough. While we are waiting for the solutions to arrive, let’s get busy planning how to dispose of the stuff. Here’s an idea. There are a lot of empty spaces underground created when we pumped all the oil and gas below the surface out so we could burn it, which produced all that nasty carbon dioxide in the first place. All we need to do is take the carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere and shove it back underground where it came from. Right?

Carbon Capture & Earthquakes

Well, maybe not. In Texas, pumping carbon dioxide underground might have some drawbacks. Like what? Earthquakes and blowouts, for example. There are so many holes in the Permian Basin that what gets pumped in over here has an effect on what happens over there? Who knew everything below the surface was interconnected, huh? Shocking, we know. According to Reuters, Texas has seen a surge in interest from companies hoping to bury carbon dioxide in its oilfields, putting the state at the forefront of a government-subsidy program to fight climate change.

Republicans — especially Texas Republicans — loathe everything to do with the federal government, especially the communist inspired Inflation Reduction Act. Yet it seems there are parts of the IRA they like a whole lot — the parts where the boys in Washington will send truckloads of federal dollars down to Austin to pay for nascent carbon sequestration technologies. But pumping CO2 into the ground could exacerbate earthquakes and well blowouts already happening in the Permian Basin as Texas struggles to manage wastewater disposal, potentially undermining public support.

“Without legitimate oversight of underground injection in Texas, we expect more geyser-like well blowouts, sinkholes, leaks from plugged and unplugged wells, and injection-induced earthquakes,” said Virginia Palacios, executive director of Commission Shift, a Texas watchdog group pushing for tougher oversight of the oil and gas industry. While such consequences have rarely happened as a result of carbon dioxide injection over the decades since the technology was first deployed, the unprecedented volume of carbon now proposed for burial concerns activists and researchers.

The IRA & Carbon Capture

Carbon sequestration is vital to federal government goals to reduce emissions that cause global warming. The Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act includes billions of dollars worth of subsidies for CCS projects. The next occupant of the Offal Office, however, has vowed to gut the IRA. But energy experts say carbon capture and sequestration subsidies will probably survive because they have bipartisan support. Several companies, including Occidental Petroleum, plan to take advantage of those IRA subsidies to promote carbon capture projects in Texas, where proponents argue the underground geology is ideal for storing liquid and gaseous waste.

Over the last 12 months, the number of applications filed with the Environmental Protection Agency for carbon injection permits in Texas has jumped by 63 percent to 43, making it a national leader. However, Texas is dogged by problems linked to disposal of wastewater from drilling operations underground. The Texas Railroad Commission has had to deal recently with leaks and blowouts from orphan wells as well as earthquakes triggered by higher pressure underground form water injection.

Reuters spoke with a dozen Texas landowners and researchers who said proposed carbon dioxide projects need more oversight than the state can offer to avert environmental and safety risks. The Texas Railroad Commission is seeking authority from the EPA to oversee its own permitting program for carbon sequestration to speed up approvals. The EPA, which is also reviewing handling of wastewater permitting in Texas following the blowouts, said the request was being considered. The RRC said in a statement it is capable of effectively regulating carbon dioxide injection wells and has hired more staff to deal with the issue. Trump’s victory increases the chances Texas will get this authority, experts say. North Dakota was the first state to receive oversight authority during Trump’s first term, and its governor, Doug Burgum, is Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary, which includes responsibility for drilling permits on federal land. That should be an “ah, hah” moment for many.

The Downside

One of the biggest Texas projects is the Stratos direct air capture joint venture in Ector County between Occidental Petroleum and BlackRock. It is expected to inject 8.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide starting in 2025, The county has numerous abandoned wells at risk of erupting if underground pressure rises and CO2 eats away at cement plugs, said oil and gas attorney Sarah Stogner, who represents landowners that have had blowouts. There have been 19,700 wells drilled in the county since 1993, according to data from state agencies. Nineteen are orphan wells, with no company legally responsible for ensuring they remain plugged, including three close to the Stratos site. Raymond Straub, a hydrogeologist who owns a Texas groundwater services firm, testified at an October EPA hearing that he was concerned Occidental did not devote enough attention to the unplugged or badly plugged orphan wells in the project area.

Occidental spokesperson William Fitzgerald, faithfully following his paycheck, said the company had done extensive site surveys to ensure it would be safe. “This survey confirmed the location of three wells, which Occidental will address prior to beginning CO2 injection. There is more than 3,000 feet of confining rock layers above the sequestration zone to securely contain the CO2.” A pilot project by Archer Daniels Midland in Illinois, the first of its kind meant to demonstrate the technical feasibility of commercial carbon injection, has suffered leaks and other setbacks, adding to concerns about the process.

ADM spokesperson Jackie Anderson said the leaks have presented no risk to surface or groundwater or to public health, and that the company is confident in CCS technology. Dominic DiGiulio, an independent energy analyst and former EPA official who has studied CCS, said that carbon dioxide can corrode the cement casings of plugged wells. “These abandoned wells will in fact leak,” he said. A 2023 paper by Chinese researchers published in the journal Earth Science Reviews found that carbon dioxide injection could also increase the risk of earthquakes.

Large leaks could acidify groundwater and suffocate people and animals if it displaces oxygen above ground, according to nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust. “This is supposed to be permanent storage,” said Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network. “If it can’t even contain it for 10 years, why do we think it can contain it forever?” she added, referring to ADM’s project.

A Minimum Of 1000 Years

That is an excellent question. The latest report from climate scientists suggests that to be effective, any captured carbon has to be locked up and stored for a minimum of 1000 years. Ten years? Piffle. That’s not even a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. So why are carbon injection plans being promoted so aggressively? If you said “money,” go to the head of the class! It’s just one chapter in the never ending quest to keep burning fossil fuels with vague promises to address the damage caused sometime in the future.

In other words, it’s a scam, a fraud, a con, and little more than a way to suck up some federal dollars on top of the already generous subsidies the fossil fuel industries already get. If you think that should be illegal, you’re right, but it shows the extent to which the government of the United States kowtows to the fossil fuel industries and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. What a wonderful Ponzi scheme! Capture it, inject it, let it escape, capture it again, inject it again. Lather, rinse, repeat, and all of it paid for by US taxpayers. What a great scheme. The gravy train that never ends. What a country!

A tip of the hat to Dan Allard.