Nine Key Takeaways about the ‘State of CO2 Removal’ in 2024

(Carbon Brief) From tree-planting to spreading silicate rock dust over land, the methods for “carbon dioxide removal” (CDR) vary in approach, impacts, readiness and cost.

The second “State of CDR” report, led by a collaboration of scientific institutions from Europe and the US, aims to summarise where the world currently stands when it comes to removing CO2 from the air.

The report covers everything from how many tonnes are currently being “drawn down” from the atmosphere and stored through to the development of research grants, policies and media coverage.

Scientists are clear that countries must cut their emissions as fast as possible to reach climate goals.

But the use of CDR to counterbalance emissions that are difficult to eliminate completely, such as methane from rice farming, will be “unavoidable” if the world is to reach net-zero, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

However, some environmental groups have concerns that highly polluting companies and countries view CDR as an alternative to reducing emissions, with one activist describing reports such as this as a “dangerous distraction”.

Carbon Brief has trawled through the new report’s 222 pages and pulled out nine key takeaways, focusing on the updates since last year’s report.

Excerpt from Inside Climate News: Texas has opened more than a million acres of offshore, state-owned waters for proposals from companies to inject greenhouse gas underground for permanent disposal as a means to mitigate climate change.

The request for proposals issued in June by Texas’ General Land Office was its fourth since 2021 and its largest by far, opening waters in Lavaca Bay, Matagorda Bay and far southern Laguna Madre, as well as offshore from South Padre Island, Matagorda Island, Freeport and the Bolivar Peninsula.

So-called “carbon sequestration” forms an emerging pillar of U.S. climate policy. With support from the oil and gas sector, it is poised for rapid expansion, thanks to federal funding. It involves capturing carbon dioxide at industrial smokestacks, piping it to wellheads and pumping it underground instead of releasing it into the air.

The practice remains expensive and technically challenging, and there are few commercial-scale examples in operation despite decades of support for the technology. Many environmentalists have warned that carbon sequestration could fail to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gases warming the planet while prolonging demand for fossil fuels.

But McConnell expects long-term demand for fossil fuels with or without carbon sequestration. Worldwide energy demand continues to grow while renewable sources have mostly supplemented fossil fuel power generation rather than replacing it. And, McConnell said, many petrochemicals like plastics can’t currently be produced without fossil fuels.

He and other industry leaders foresee the Gulf Coast becoming a global hub for carbon disposal, thanks to three factors: favorable geology, proximity to industrial emissions and the simplicity of working on state-owned land. All that’s missing is a revenue model.

The EPA has yet to permit the first of these so-called “Class VI” wells in Texas, but it shows 13 permit applications under review with a total of 34 wells. Of those applications, 11 are onshore, one includes offshore sequestration and one is in a coastal wetland. Another project, Bayou Bend by Chevron and TotalEnergies, calls itself the “first offshore stratigraphic well for carbon capture and storage in U.S. state waters.” But a permit application has yet to be filed with the EPA.

Texas’ oilfield regulator, the Texas Railroad Commission, has requested to administer the Class VI permitting program itself, an authority the EPA has already granted to Louisiana, North Dakota and Wyoming. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico Pro Energywire: The developer of a carbon pipeline and storage site in Louisiana is eyeing a major expansion of the project — potentially increasing the pipeline’s length more than threefold and running it through two additional states.

Tracy Evans, the chief executive of Texas-based CapturePoint, said the project could potentially expand from its current 150 miles of pipeline to around 500 miles and run through small portions of East Texas and southern Arkansas. Evans revealed the plans last week on the sidelines of a carbon management conference in Colorado.

The move would broaden the footprint of one of Louisiana’s major carbon capture projects and underscore the effect of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. CapturePoint and other companies have expressed interest in developing projects to offtake CO2 from large industrial hubs in order to receive 45Q tax credits for carbon storage expanded under the law.

The company’s plans come as Louisiana is preparing for potentially dozens of carbon capture projects to begin construction. Nine months ago, EPA granted the state “primacy,” or the ability to issue Class VI permits for injection of CO2 into saline or other geologic formations .... READ MORE