Generous federal tax credits are driving the onrush of carbon capture and storage projects being proposed in the U.S. But like a game of whack-a-mole, there’s a chance the planet-warming emissions could seep back up into the atmosphere after they are injected underground.

How? Through any one of the thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells throughout the country. Louisiana alone has 4,500 abandoned wells and more than 21,000 inactive wells. Nationwide, there could be as many as 3 million such wells. Despite the numerous “holes” in the ground, companies including Occidental Petroleum, Denbury and Blue Sky are rushing to purchase the underground spaces, generally deep underground, and sometimes in the spaces that once held oil and gas.

The idea behind carbon capture and storage is to take carbon that would have otherwise gone up into the atmosphere and store it underground.

So far, more than two dozen storage sites in Louisiana are publicly known, including the most controversial, under Lake Maurepas.

“Those wells are like straws in the marsh,” said Alex Kolker, Louisiana coastal geologist at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. “It’s a conduit for carbon dioxide to reach the surface.”

Take for instance, the 9,101-acre area of Louisiana state waters under which carbon dioxide can be injected by the Plaquemines LNG terminal, according to the agreement between the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and LNG owner Venture Global. In the same township as the Plaquemines carbon-dioxide storage agreement, the state DNR inventory lists seven “orphaned” oil wells, which weren’t properly plugged and abandoned, making them more likely pathways for CO2 leaks.

The Venture Global plant itself sits on 632 acres of land. So the storage area that it commands is nearly 15 times larger, extending over Plaquemines’ waters where abandoned oil and gas infrastructure is a common hazard.

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On this episode of the American Shoreline Podcast, Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham sit down with Dr. Susan Hovorka, Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, at The University of Texas at Austin. She has worked on diverse topics related to water quality protection, waste storage in bedded salt, and reservoir characterization. Her current research focuses on assessment of effectiveness of subsurface geologic sequestration of CO2 as a mechanism for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. Hovorka is the principle investigator of the Gulf Coast Carbon Center (www.gulfcoastcarbon.org) an industry/academic partnership working on economically viable approaches to geologic sequestration of CO2.

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Capturing climate-warming carbon dioxide from energy production, industrial processes or directly from the air is considered an important part of plans to keep global warming in check.

But critics worry about the implications of pumping millions of tons of the captured carbon underground. Worries include the potential for earthquakes from forcing the carbon underground, contamination of groundwater and the eventual leakage of that carbon back into the atmosphere.

Though Louisiana is not known as an earthquake zone, it may be a concern in Plaquemines, given the geological research of landmark coastal scientist Woody Gagliano, who believed that coastal fault lines were responsible for subsidence, the Bastian Bay fault runs through the area near the Plaquemines LNG terminal. The fault’s location was confirmed by Tulane and University of Austin geologists using seismic data.

The leakage problem has been studied extensively, including by the industry itself. Sue Hovorka, a research scientist at the University of Texas-Austin and considered a pioneer of the geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, says the risk is manageable with proper oversight and regulation. “It’s a stress point that has to be honored,” she said.

Possible carbon escapes fall under Louisiana regulators with “poor track record”

Government regulations for geologic sequestration of carbon, called Class VI permits, require careful analysis of all potential pathways for the carbon to escape, as well as regular monitoring and testing. Those regulations require identifying and mitigating all abandoned or inactive wells that are on that property. So far, however, only two such wells have been constructed in the United States.

Louisiana has applied for permission to regulate those wells, and the Environmental Protection Agency indicated earlier this year it would hand over that authority. A comment period on that decision ended Sept. 15.

The handoff to states adds another layer of concern for some critics of carbon capture.

“Louisiana regulatory agencies have a poor track record when it comes to enforcing permits and ensuring existing rules are followed,” says Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy. “This has been a documented failing at both the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality and gives us little reason to believe that even the most stringent of guidelines will be followed.”

Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, said he understands and “100%” agrees with the concerns that have been brought up around CCS projects and abandoned wells. For CCS companies to obtain their operating permits in Louisiana, their carbon-injection zones will be surveyed and mapped out with subsurface tools to detect wellbores and freshwater aquifers, he said. Operators will be required to properly plug any wells that don’t pass DNR’s inspection.

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