New Report: Carbon Capture & SequestrationReports | Sep 18, 2024
Empower LLC studied carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects in Texas to explore the nature and the extent of the government’s role in expediting the deployment of CCS projects. The research, documented in Empower LLC’s newest report, shows that CCS is completely dependent on government tax credits and subsidies, rendering CCS a U.S. government-sponsored economic experiment with little, if any, climate change mitigation efficacy. CCS directly benefits companies with longstanding histories in the oil and gas sector. These are the very companies that are responsible for the human-induced climate crisis and that fund campaigns casting doubt on human influence of climate change. Ultimately, CCS diverts limited federal time and resources to an ineffective technology that could be spent on effective climate solutions.
Key Findings from the Report
- Carbon capture and sequestration projects directly depend on tax credits and subsidies from the U.S. Government. In fact, public funding and tax breaks are the largest sources of revenue for CCS projects. Without the massive federal investment, the private sector deems most CCS projects unprofitable or unfeasible.
- Through land leases and other public instruments, local schools and governments in Texas are being or will be indirectly financed by CCS tax credits. This may create financial dependence on the fossil fuel industry for public sector activities.
- Using Internal Revenue Service tax forms, Empower computed estimated tax credits for 34 projects. CCS projects in Texas could receive a minimum of $3.2 billion in annual tax credits, and up to a maximum of $33 billion per year.
- State and federal statutes allow CCS companies to withhold most critical information, limiting the amount of information available to the public.
- Companies using CCS create layers of subsidiaries to isolate CCS-related risk from other corporate units and provide only required resources from their balance sheets to the subsidiary developing and operating a CCS project. As a result, the federal government (and taxpayers) bear the financial burden with minimal risk to the private sector.
Read the full report here.
