Comments to halt carbon capture under national forests due to Feds by Jan. 2

Carbon capture is the latest technology the fossil fuel industry and federal government are pushing that allows the industry to keep drilling while professing to get a handle on rising temperatures and climate change.

Eastern Appalachian Ohio, West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania are targets for 12 Class VI Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plants as part of the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. (IRA).

Tenaska, a methane (natural) gas developer and marketer with offices in Texas and Nebraska, recently announced it was awarded a $69 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energyto assist with the projects.

“Landmen,” or representatives from Tenaska, which opened an office in Weirton, West Virginia, and been seen knocking on doors in Hancock County West Virginia. They seek leases with landowners for “pore space” under their properties to store the carbon dioxide.

Construction and operation of seven Class VI carbon dioxide injection wells in West Virginia (Hancock, Brooke and Marshall counties; 12 wells in Ohio (Jefferson, Harrison and Carroll counties); and three in Pennsylvania (Washington County) are also under discussion.

These injection wells would create only 49 permanent jobs, according to the Review of Lisbon, Ohio.

Recently the federal government announced plans to change its rules to allow CCS in national forests, which could allow the gas and oil industry to store carbon dioxide in national forests. Ohio’s only national forest—the Wayne National Forest—could be a candidate if the rock strata is suitable.

If the new rule change is permitted, and new injection wells allowed in our national forests, more fracking may result, increasing carbon and methane emissions and causing more forest habitat and environmental degradation.

Wayne National Forest consists of more than 244, 000 acres in 12 counties with jurisdictions in Lawrence, Washington and Athens County. Included in it are the famed North Country Trail, the Buckeye Trail and American Discovery Trail. All three are popular national hiking trails.

Ohio’s inclusion in the proposed Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub is another concern. The proposed “blue hydrogen hub” would make hydrogen methane (natural) gas from fracking, capturing the carbon dioxide emissions.

Biden Administration’s new rules will give federal tax credits per ton of captured carbon dioxide from power plants, but those plants will release additional carbon dioxide from the very process of capturing carbon.

The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub project at the nexus of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will benefit from these credits, as it will be using CCS to make gray hydrogen “blue.” That stored hydrogen could be sequestered in a national forest or grassland.

The U.S. Forest Service’s rule change would allow carbon dioxide captured directly from the air or industrial processes like oil and gas production to be stored permanently under public lands; however, the unproven technology worries some scientists.

The carbon dioxide would be pumped directly into injection wells drilled 3,000 feet deep underground into saline deposits or rock strata under national forests and grasslands.

Save Ohio Parks and other environmentalists, scientists and climatologists across the nation say CCS supported by governments and the fossil fuel industry allows them to ignore the climate crisis and permit the oil and gas industry to keep drilling while the nation simultaneously begins to reduce its carbon and methane air emissions.

Public comments to let the U.S. government know carbon capture is not a safe or sustainable way to use our national forests are due Tuesday, Jan. 2.

About 140 groups have called for an extension to the comment period, but a decision was not made by Dec. 23.

Jim Furnish, a retired U.S. Forest Service deputy chief who consults on forestry issues, told Grist the proposed rule change was a reversal of historic Forest Service policy that only allows temporary use of forest service lands, usually from five to 20 years. He called the rule change a “powerful incentive to continue to burn fossil fuels” and the “opposite of a virtuous cycle.”

The proposed rule, “Land Uses; Special Uses; Carbon Capture and Storage Exemption,” and instructions on how to comment are available in the Federal Register at https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-24341.

Comments, identified by RIN 0596–AD55 in an email subject line, may be sent through the Federal eRulemaking Portal by Jan. 2, or by visiting: https://bit.ly/3NzSR84.

Carbon capture is alarming for residents of Ohio’s most-fracked Appalachian counties. They fear increased risks to their health, the environment and water supply. Ohio already has 19,000 abandoned oil wells and at least four leaking Class II injection wells in Torch, Ohio.

Yet carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) has become the new darling of the fossil fuel industry. It was touted at climate discussions during COP28 recently, said Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., retired chemist and steering committee member at Save Ohio Parks.  Along with 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists, there were 475 lobbyists specializing in carbon capture utilization and storage projects at the COP28.

“If you have any doubt as to who is pushing this unproven and expensive technology, just look at the dominant membership of the Carbon Capture Coalition,” said Pokladnik. “Many scientists are afraid oil producing countries and the fossil fuel industry will use carbon capture as an excuse to keep drilling.”

The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub is a proposed site for one of seven federal hydrogen energy plants. Environmental advocates and moderate Democrats like U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) want the plants to be built and operated with new renewable power sources, while the fossil fuel industry and more conservative Democrats like retiring U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) want fossil fuels included. At stake for both the growing carbon capture and hydrogen energy industries are lucrative federal tax subsidies under the Inflations Reduction Act.

Whatever efforts are employed to reduce carbon and methane emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the world needs to capture 1.2 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2050; today, total global carbon capture efforts amount to four percent of that goal.

Basics of carbon capture technology

Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., a retired chemist and environmental activist who lives in Harrison County, Ohio, said the public needs to know some basics about carbon capture and storage.

“There is big money to be made by the fossil fuel industry when it comes to carbon capture,” says Pokladnik. “Instead of being penalized for polluting, they will be paid.”

International Energy Alliance (IEA) data show the United States could see CO2 capture capacity increase five times to over 100 metric tons (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually with 80 projects coming online by 2030, but this will make only a small dent in emissions because new fossil fuel development projects will likely continue to add to current emissions.

Once captured, carbon dioxide is stored underground in Class VI Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) injection wells or used for another process called Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS).

Currently, a majority of carbon captured and used for another process is for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). During this procedure, pressurized CO2 is pumped into old oil field wells to help force out any remaining oil deposits.

The majority of the world’s 21 large-scale CCS plants are located in the U.S. and Canada. All but five sell or send their carbon dioxide to facilities involved in enhanced oil recovery.

Carbon capture and storage only addresses carbon dioxide emissions from existing smokestack gases. It doesn’t stop methane gas emissions from fossil fuel extraction such as coal mines and fracking. It doesn’t address additional sources of carbon dioxide emissions from transportation of equipment, construction of a CCS facility and the emissions from the CCS facility itself.

Carbon dioxide injected into rock strata can contaminate ground and surface water as it combines with water, creating carbonic acid. CCS facilities can greatly increase the amount of water needed for power plants fitted with the technology. In addition to more water, power plants fitted with CCS technology need more energy to power the CCS portion of the facility.

Safety issues are involved in CCS, too, especially during transportation. In 2020, in Yazoo County, Mississippi, a 24-inch carbon dioxide underground pipeline ruptured. More than 300 people were evacuated and 46 people were treated at hospitals. The concentration of carbon dioxide was high enough to cause gas-powered car engines to stop. First responders said some people were unconscious while others wandered around like zombies.

Unlike wind and solar, which roughly displace 35 times as much CO2 every year as the complete global history of CCS, carbon capture is still in early stages. It’s not ready to be used at a scale necessary to curtail the climate crisis.

Photo: Horseback riders in Wayne National Forest. Credit: U.S. Forest Service Wayne National Forest Facebook page.