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.
Beyond carbon capture: San Antonio company isn’t just capturing CO2. It’s making something of it. 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.
Texas Gulf Coast wins up to $1.2 billion as 1 of 7 U.S. hydrogen hubs to help replace fossil fuels Also in June, seven congressional Democrats from Texas asked the EPA not to grant Texas permitting authority over carbon sequestration wells. “This is a pivotal time to ensure permits are reviewed with great care,” the lawmakers wrote.
As federal money flows to carbon capture and storage, Texas bets on an undersea bonanza Furthermore, the near coastal waters all belong to a single landowner, the state, drastically simplifying the processes of identifying landowners and dividing royalties. The National Petroleum Council, in a 2019 report to the U.S. Department of Energy, even raised the possibility of importing carbon dioxide for disposal on the Gulf Coast.