A controversial tactic for slowing climate change is picking up steam in Texas: capturing carbon dioxide emissions from smokestacks. While that might reduce CO2 emissions heating up the planet, it could pose new problems for communities already saddled with industrial pollution. Oil giant Occidental announced late last week that it leased 55,000 acres along the Gulf Coast of Texas to build out a hub for carbon capture technologies.
companies can plug into this hub for access to shared carbon infrastructure,” Jeff Alvarez, president of the Occidental subsidiary 1PointFive Sequestration, said in the announcement. Sharing that infrastructure helps solve a big problem for carbon capture: that it’s been prohibitively expensive to deploy. Building a hub near a high concentration of refineries and chemical plants means Occidental will get more bang for its buck.