Billions of federal tax dollars will soon be pouring into Louisiana to fight climate change, yet the projects they’re supporting may actually boost fossil fuels—the very products warming the planet. At issue are plans to build dozens of federally subsidized projects to capture and bury carbon dioxide from industries. On the surface, these projects seem beneficial. Keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere prevents the greenhouse gas from fueling climate change.
In practice, however, this may lead to a net increase in fossil fuel production and more emissions. Carbon capture has similarly turned the oil and gas industry into a critical component of mitigating climate change while the industry continues producing products that are heating the planet. That’s because many of these carbon capture projects will be handling emissions from facilities that rely on oil and natural gas—in fact, many of the projects are tied to major oil and gas companies through subsidiarie