The coal-burning power plants stand behind the Petra Nova Carbon Capture plant at NRG’s WA Parish power plant in Richmond. Carbon capture is seen by many as an economic driver, but Petra Nova was shuttered, beset by technical problems and exorbitant costs.
, with Exxon Mobil and 13 other companies saying they will try to raise $100 billion to make the Houston Ship Channel and the sea beds around it a carbon capture and storage hub. Critics, however, say betting Houston’s energy future on this one technology is short-sighted. They have challenged the idea that carbon capture will deliver meaningful results toward achieving climate goals and question whether the technology – or at least its promise – is little more than cover for energy companies to keep pumping oil and gas and protect their profits, even as the world demands cleaner energy.
Oil and gas companies, meanwhile, were constantly knocking on MIT’s door asking fellows and professors to conduct feasibility studies for enhanced oil recovery projects that could take advantage of those government proposals. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022, authorized $369 billion for efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help slow global warming.