Tell Congress to Stop Wasting our Money on Dangerous Carbon Capture Subsidies

“Carbon Capture and Storage,” often called CCS, refers to processes designed to collect or “capture” carbon dioxide generated by industrial processes — such as coal, oil, and gas-fired power production or plastics manufacturing. Once collected or removed, the carbon (CO₂) is then either transported to sites where they are used to produce more fossil fuels or injected into the ground for long term storage.

Over the past two decades, our government has spent billions on CCS pilot projects. Yet both at home and abroad, the vast majority of projects have failed. Petra Nova in Texas, once the nation’s flagship CCS project and recipient of $190 million in public subsidies, shut down in 2020 after missing key capture goals and suffering repeated breakdowns. 

Public dollars are being funneled into a dangerous, expensive technology that’s proven not to work. It costs significantly more to build CCS infrasructure than renewable energy and storage options. The focus of leaders and policymakers should remain on cost-effective strategies that maximize public benefit and ensure a stable economic future. Carbon capture and storage does not fit that bill. 

CCS infrastructure isn’t just expensive — it’s dangerous. CO₂ is a toxic gas that can restrict breathing. In Satartia, Mississippi, a CO₂ pipeline rupture sent 45 people to the hospital and resulted in more than 200 people being evacuated. “Even months later, the town’s residents reported mental fogginess, lung dysfunction, chronic fatigue and stomach disorders,” reports Dan Zegart in the Huff Post article, The Gassing Of Satartia. 

In Illinois, an underground carbon injection well was found to be leaking CO₂, raising concerns about drinking water contamination. And there have been countless other incidents, including one in April of last year near Sulphur, Louisiana. 

The fossil fuel industry keeps saying CCS is “safe” and “proven,” but we know firsthand that’s not the case. Carbon injection wells and pipelines come with real safety risks — and rural, low-income and minority communities are often the ones left in harm’s way.

Carbon capture technology consumes huge amounts of energy and water. Adding CCS to power plants can reduce that power plants output by upwards of 25% while doubling water use.  That means more fuel burned, more emissions released, and more costs passed on to consumers. In a time of already high and rising utility bills, CCS adds insult to injury.

Additionally, CCS requires water during the cooling (for power plants) and capture processes and can consume up to 152,000 gallons of water per metric ton of captured CO₂. Large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage could double our water footprint.

Most CCS projects currently in operation use the captured carbon to extract even more fossil fuels in a process known as enhanced oil recovery, or EOR. Nearly 80% of captured carbon is just being used for EOR. The 45Q tax credit has become a tool for billion-dollar corporations to collect public subsidies while expanding harmful, extractive infrastructure. Communities bear the risks while CEOs collect the rewards.

CCS and the build out of wells and pipelines threatens Louisiana’s wetlands and further exacerbates land loss. Because carbon capture infrastructure would be added to existing facilities or built near industry, facilities would further harm the same people already overburdened by industrial pollution. In Louisiana, that would put Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities at even greater risk.

Every dollar spent on carbon capture is a dollar not spent on clean energy, flood protection, clean drinking water, and support for working families.