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carbon capture
There Is No Such Thing as 'Normal' Trump Nominee
And Doug Burgum proves it. Backing false climate solutions is hardly less corrosive than outright climate denial when it comes to the goal of mitigating climate change.
Dec 15, 2024
Trump has spent the month since the election firing off a rapid torrent of Cabinet picks. His nominees generally fall into two types: obviously whacko (see Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, RFK Jr.) and superficially normal (think Marco Rubio, Doug Burgum, Pam Bondi). While the headline-grabbing scandals and general trumpery of the first group easily draw scorn, it’s important that we not grade the second group on a credulous curve, overlooking the economic interests behind their soothingly conventional manner.
That’s a lesson we should remember from the last Trump administration, when scandal-plagued appointees like Scott Pruitt at EPA and Ryan Zinke at Interior were replaced by more circumspect villains like Andrew Wheeler at EPA and David Bernhardt at Interior. Wheeler and Bernhardt wreaked havoc on environmental, public health, and public lands protection while evading the mockery invited by their predecessors.
Even a wannabe-authoritarian like Trump wants his administration to have a veneer of power and legitimacy, and the scandals of Pruitt and Zinke compromised that illusion. As I recapped for our series of Trump retrospectives, Pruitt “misspent millions in public funds on 24/7 private security, first-class plane tickets, chartered jets, and renovations, while misusing EPA staffers to find his wife a job and do his personal errands,” while Zinke “resigned amid over a dozen ongoing ethics investigations.” Mockery can be politically useful, insofar as it deflates authoritarian egos. But corruption doesn’t have to be sensational to be consequential—and those are the harder stories to tell.
Billionaire Burgum and His Billionaire Buddies
Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary and energy czar, the billionaire former software executive and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, appears to be more in the mold of Bernhardt than Zinke: staunchly anti-regulation, pro-corporate, pro-oil.
Backing false climate solutions is hardly less corrosive than outright climate denial when it comes to the goal of mitigating climate change. It just makes Burgum a more slippery villain.
Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist, had so many potential conflicts of interest at Interior that he walked around with a card listing them all. Burgum leases his family land for oil and gas drilling to Continental Resources, which is owned by his billionaire friend and collaborator Harold Hamm. Hamm’s name might be familiar to you, as he is the billionaire with whom Burgum is orchestrating Trump’s energy policies. Burgum also leases land to oil company Hess, whose billionaire CEO John Hess gave Burgum $25,000 for his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. Burgum’s spouse also owns over $100,000 of stock in fossil fuel companies, according to Burgum’s 2023 financial disclosure.
Harold Hamm organized the dinner between Trump and oil executives last spring where Trump asked for $1 billion in donations in order to demolish Biden’s climate agenda; Burgum attended it. (Eighteen days after that dinner, Hamm’s Continental Resources donated $1 million to Trump.) Hamm and other Big Oil executives present at that dinner have defied congressional Democrats’ requests for information about this meeting. John Hess, meanwhile, was scrutinized by the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission for colluding with OPEC and Saudi Arabia on oil pricing, and as a result of their preliminary investigation he was banned from joining Chevron’s board. Hess has said he may appeal this ban once Trump takes office. If confirmed, Burgum will have personal ties to these “drill-ionaires” in the crosshairs of federal oversight while helming the federal agency that leases the land and issues the permits to drillers.
Burgum told wealthy Trump donors that the “the No. 1 thing that President Trump could do on Day 1” would be to “stop the hostile attack against all American energy, and I mean all. Whether it’s baseload electricity, whether it’s oil, whether it’s gas, whether it’s ethanol, there is an attack on liquid fuels.” In reality, every single year of the Biden presidency, the U.S. produced more crude oil than any other nation at any other time, and remained the world’s largest methane gas producer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Burgum is Bullish on Carbon Capture Bullsh*t
As governor of North Dakota, Burgum has been a vocal supporter of the controversial Summit Carbon Capture Pipeline, which would transport carbon captured from ethanol production facilities across state lines and sequester it underground in North Dakota. As Molly Taft brilliantly documented in “Unrest in Carbon Country,” opposition to Summit’s carbon pipeline and the use of eminent domain to seize land for it has united people across parties and walks of life in the rural Midwest.
Burgum’s support for the massive carbon pipeline project is unsurprising when you consider that Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources is one of the project’s main investors. But more broadly, Burgum’s support for carbon capture should not be understood as an admission of the need to mitigate climate change, but rather as an extension of a shrewd maneuver from the oil and gas industry to secure federal climate funding for a technology that helps them extract more oil and gas.
Capturing the carbon created as a byproduct of industrial processes in order to pump it back underground and recover more oil and gas from a well—also known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR)—has become increasingly important to the fossil fuel industry as oil reserves and the productivity of existing wells diminish. As the great Amy Westervelt explained last week:
“The carbon capture and storage (CCS) boom is neither a greenwashing campaign nor a genuine attempt to tackle carbon emissions, it has been driven almost entirely by the industry’s increasing reliance on EOR to deal with oil fields in decline. Compressed carbon turns out to be the best way to get dwindling oil reserves out of the ground, but it’s also one of the more expensive methods. Solution? Re-brand the process as a climate solution and get taxpayers to fund it. That is what the 45Q tax credit, passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, is all about.”
And that is definitely what carbon capture is about for the oil industry in North Dakota. The state’s primary drilling region, the Bakken formation, contains a massive amount of hard-to-get oil. The Bakken has a low “recovery factor” of less than 10 percent of oil in place being extracted. The fracking boom in the Bakken basin, which made Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources a fortune, unlocked more productivity for oil extraction. But enhanced oil recovery could potentially extend production further, prolonging the polluting lifespan of fossil fuel extraction even as major producers in the Bakken can foresee the time when production dwindles.
As Molly Taft reported for Drilled, “In April, North Dakota’s top oil and gas regulator warned that without importing CO2 from outside states, production in the Bakken could go into ‘terminal decline.’ Governor Burgum…called enhanced oil recovery carbon capture’s ‘biggest prize.’”
Earlier this year, Reutersreported that while Summit Carbon Solutions “has repeatedly pledged its project will not be used by drillers to boost output from oil fields,” its message to prospective clients from North Dakota’s oil industry is decidedly different: “if you want to use our project for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), where gas is pumped into oil fields to increase production, just write a check.”
Burgum’s support for carbon capture is among the factors that led some to view him as a less extreme pick than climate change deniers Chris Wright and Lee Zeldin, who Trump has tapped to head the Energy Department and the EPA. When he ran for president in 2023, USA Todayreported that “Burgum believes human activity has caused climate change, and as governor he made it a goal to get the Roughrider State carbon-neutral by 2030. But he rejects the Democratic worldview of using regulation to curtail fossil fuel use and instead emphasizes innovative technology to capture carbon emissions.” After Burgum was tapped by Trump for Interior, Politicodeemed Burgum to be “maybe the best hope for policymakers who favor an ‘abundance agenda.’”
Burgum’s selection has indeed gathered praise from pro-development voices on the center and right, including Alec Stapp of Institute for Progress, who called Burgum a “YIMBY abundance guy.” Joe Pitts of American Enterprise Institute called his selection “really, really good news.” Matt Yglesias called him “a totally solid pick who’ll do good things.” In what a telling glimpse into what the abundance agenda may be gunning for—cheap energy for AI data centers—Thomas Hochman of the Foundation for American Innovation tweeted that Burgum would help the U.S. “win the AI arms race.” Christopher Barnard of the American Conservation Coalition tweeted that he was “excited to see how [Burgum] drains the permitting swamp over the next 4 years.”
Backing false climate solutions is hardly less corrosive than outright climate denial when it comes to the goal of mitigating climate change. It just makes Burgum a more slippery villain. His gubernatorial track record gives us a sense of what we might expect from him at Interior. As governor, Burgum opposed a federal rule requiring gas companies to cut down on methane leaks when drilling on federal and tribal lands, while his state sued the Biden administration’s Interior Department for establishing conservation as a valid use of federal lands. Burgum opposed a federal rule reducing mercury emissions from coal plants that cause cancer, heart attacks, and developmental delays in children, while exempting the coal industry from $100 million in taxes over five years. Burgum applauded federal funding going to corporations pushing false climate solutions like carbon capture from coal production and gas-powered hydrogen production, but wants to repeal federal subsidies for consumers purchasing electric vehicles.
Unfortunately for the climate left, there will be little solace in “I told you so” when Burgum reveals himself to be just as irredeemably oily as the rest of Trump’s pollution promoters.
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Exclusive: Khanna Proposes End to 'Unconscionable' Taxpayer Subsidies for Big Oil
"The fossil fuel industry receives over $20.5 billion in taxpayer dollars every year while fleecing American consumers and driving a global climate crisis," said the California Democrat.
Sep 26, 2024
As fossil fuel giants continue to rake in billions of dollars in profits, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna on Thursday is reintroducing legislation to end giving billions in taxpayer dollars to companies that inject captured carbon dioxide into wells to extract more climate-wrecking oil.
"The fossil fuel industry receives over $20.5 billion in taxpayer dollars every year while fleecing American consumers and driving a global climate crisis," Khanna (D-Calif.) told Common Dreams. "The End Polluter Welfare for Enhanced Oil Recovery Act will eliminate the subsidy for captured carbon used for enhanced oil recovery, which only leads to more fossil fuel extraction and does nothing to mitigate climate change."
While advocates of carbon capture utilization and storage claim that it's necessary to address the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, most CO2 captured in the United States is used to extract more planet-heating oil and gas, leading many scientists and green groups to argue that it is a "false climate solution."
"Oil drilling is the real story behind the fossil fuel industry's carbon capture obsession," said Jim Walsh, policy director at Food & Water Watch, which has endorsed Khanna's bill. "These corporate polluters are raiding public coffers from what could easily be hundreds of billions of dollars while greenwashing the further degradation of our climate."
Walsh also highlighted the impact on people who live near fossil fuel infrastructure, telling Common Dreams that "communities across the country are facing the potential for thousands of harmful industrial projects and tens of thousands of miles of dangerous pipelines that will do little more than put money in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry."
Despite such warnings, Congress has actually boosted Section 45Q tax giveaways for companies using captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) since Khanna first introduced the legislation in December 2021. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was heralded as a "landmark" climate package for its investments in cleaner energy, but a little-noticed provision in the law increased the relevant credit for CO2 injection from $35 to $60 per metric ton.
"Taxpayers shouldn't be left footing the bill to help Big Oil boost its profits at the expense of our health and economy."
This year, 15 other House members are backing Khanna's bill, as are over a dozen organizations. Among them is Evergreen Action, which has spent years calling for reforms, including a June memo denouncing 45Q subsidies that encourage more fossil fuel production.
"It's unconscionable that American taxpayers are still subsidizing oil and gas companies to extract even more fossil fuels through so-called 'enhanced oil recovery,'" said Evergreen Action senior energy transition policy lead Mattea Mrkusic. "By eliminating these wasteful tax giveaways, Rep. Ro Khanna's bill takes a crucial step toward ending one of many federal fossil fuel handouts that drive climate pollution."
"Climate change is no longer a distant threat—it's happening right now, fueling more frequent and severe weather events, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities, and costing the American people billions every year," Mrkusic told Common Dreams. "Taxpayers shouldn't be left footing the bill to help Big Oil boost its profits at the expense of our health and economy. It's a perfect time to fully invest in our clean energy future instead."
Khanna's reintroduction of the End Polluter Welfare for EOR Act follows the hottest year in human history—a record that 2024 is expected to beat, with historic summer heat that led global scientists to demand urgent action to shift away from fossil fuels.
It also comes less than six weeks away from the U.S. general election, in which Americans are set to determine the makeup of Congress and the next occupant of the Oval Office. While Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has the support of nearly every major climate group, former Republican President Donald Trump, who has pledged to swiftly gut federal climate policies if Big Oil puts $1 billion toward his campaign, has been dubbed an existential threat to progress on the climate crisis.
Regardless of who wins in November, there's also a looming Capitol Hill battle over taxation, given that policies Trump signed into law in 2017 are set to expire at the end of next year. As Common Dreamsreported in June, the climate movement sees that debate as an opportunity to end tax giveaways for the fossil fuel industry.
"Fossil fuel companies have raked in astronomical profits at the expense of communities while Big Oil and Gas lobbyists actively work to keep us hooked on their polluting products that perpetuate the climate crisis," said Mahyar Sorour, Sierra Club's director of beyond fossil fuels policy. "It is absurd that taxpayers should then also provide a blank check through subsidies, corporate giveaways, and sweetheart deals."
Sierra Club is supporting Khanna's bill, as are 350.org, Alliance for Affordable Energy, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for International Environmental Law, Climate Justice Alliance, Environment America, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, Oil Change International, Our Revolution, Oxfam America, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. PIRG, and Zero Hour.
"We must end the billions of dollars in wasteful taxpayer subsidies to the fossil fuel industry," Sorour stressed. "Congress continues to say they are concerned about the country's deficit. Ending handouts to billion-dollar corporations that price gouge consumers and pollute our environment is a great way to reduce spending."
"We are grateful to Rep. Khanna for leading this legislation and look forward to supporting this and other types of similar legislation that hold Big Oil and Gas companies accountable," Sorour told Common Dreams.
Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) reintroduced the broader End Polluter Welfare Act, of which Khanna is a co-lead. Its sponsors say that by closing tax loopholes and ending corporate handouts to the fossil fuel industry, that bill "would save American taxpayers up to $170 billion over the next 10 years."
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Leak at First CO2 Injection Site in US Exposes Dangerous Folly of Carbon Capture
"This incident puts an exclamation point on concerns communities across the country have been raising for years about the dangers the CCS industry poses to public safety and drinking water," said one climate group.
Sep 13, 2024
Environmental groups said Friday that a newly reported leak at the first CO2 injection site in the United States highlights the threat—and false promise—of carbon capture and storage efforts, which climate advocates have long criticized as a ploy by the fossil fuel industry to preserve its extractive business model.
E&E Newsreported Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has "issued a violation notice to the operator of the country's first carbon dioxide injection wells for permanent storage, alleging that the company hasn't complied with its federal permit."
The facility operator is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), an agribusiness giant that has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS) efforts—with underwhelming results.
E&E News published a three-page notice that the EPA sent to Archer Daniels Midland, alerting the company to a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act at its CCS injection well in Decatur, Illinois.
The EPA said the company allowed "injection and formation fluids" to move into "unauthorized zones."
A spokesperson for ADM told E&E News that the company in March "detected some corrosion in a section of one of two deep monitoring wells at approximately 5,000 feet and below." According to E&E News, "that corrosion allowed CO2 and formation fluid to migrate into a formation where those liquids weren't permitted to go."
"There are significant risks at every step of the CCS process, and it's not a matter of if carbon sequestration facilities leak, but rather when."
Jim Walsh, policy director for Food & Water Watch, criticized the EPA for its "lack of transparency" surrounding the leak, adding that
"carbon dioxide injection wells are a dangerous endeavor, even if EPA does not capitulate to industry demands to rush permitting."
"This incident puts an exclamation point on concerns communities across the country have been raising for years about the dangers the CCS industry poses to public safety and drinking water," said Walsh. "The reality is this: CCS is a technologically unsound and economically unviable scheme, perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry to allow oil and gas companies to keep on drilling, keep on fracking, and keep on polluting our planet."
The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition said in a statement Friday that the incident underscores that "there are significant risks at every step of the CCS process, and it's not a matter of if carbon sequestration facilities leak, but rather when."
"This incident demonstrates how important strict CCS regulations are to protect our communities and environment, and is exactly why we passed the CCS Protections Act in Illinois this year," the group said. "There are real concerns from many legislators, community partners, and Illinoisans who rely on public drinking water about the need for even stronger protections, and this incident shows that these concerns need to be taken seriously to ensure Illinoisians are protected to the fullest extent possible."
Concerns about leaks and other harms associated with CCS projects are expected to grow as the U.S. continues promoting them with taxpayer dollars.
"Federal and state regulators are reviewing 69 projects or permits to store CO2 underground, with 24 of those in Louisiana. Nine projects have already been approved while one more, in California, is pending," Inside Climate Newsreported earlier this year. "Companies plan to inject carbon dioxide into porous rock formations that are usually filled with brine containing not only extremely high salt levels but often heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and radioactive elements. Brine leaks, therefore, can be even more worrying than the escape of CO2."
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