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EPA Continues to Delay Approval of Class VI CCS Injection Wells

To store carbon dioxide (CO2) underground, you need a Class VI CO2 injection well. Currently, the federal EPA is the primary regulator (has “primacy”) in regulating Class VI wells in all but two states (neither of which is a Marcellus/Utica state). PA and other oil and gas states are seeking to become the lead regulator for Class VI CO2 wells, which we explained in a post in March (see Understanding “Primacy” Issue for Class VI (CO2) Injection Wells). It’s critically important for individual states, like PA, to be the lead regulator–to have “primacy” in regulating Class VI wells. Yet the Biden EPA is slow-walking the process that would give individual states primacy.
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Dan Rice’s New “Net-Zero” CO2 Company Gets Extra $275M Investment

Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power–an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see Dan Rice Buys Co. that Builds Zero-Carbon Gas-Fired Electric Plants). The deal is not yet consummated but is getting close. Perhaps an extra $275 million will be enough to get it across the finish line?
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Antis Object to PA DEP Oversight of Carbon Capture Injection Wells

We have new evidence that so-called environmental groups, including a long list of anti-fracking groups in Pennsylvania, don’t really care about the environmental at all. They only care about the power to dictate to you what energy sources you can and cannot use–as a way of controlling you. Great strides have been made in capturing and sequestering (storing underground) carbon dioxide (CO2). These so-called environmental groups all say that CO2 is killing Mom Earth. Yet when real science is employed to control CO2 (to sequester it), they attempt to block it. Why is that?
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Mall of America Hotel 1st to Use New CO2-Capture Tech on Gas Heaters

CleanO2 Heat Recovery and Carbon Capture Process (click for larger version)

We happened across a story so interesting and instructive that we want to share it with you–even though (technically) it has nothing specifically to do with the Marcellus/Utica. Yesterday the Radisson Blu Mall of America hotel, part of Choice Hotels International, announced it is the first hotel in the world to install CarbinX™ carbon-capture technology on the hotel’s natural gas water heating equipment. CarbinX cap­­tures carbon dioxide (CO2) and converts it to a nontoxic carbonate powder known as pearl ash.
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Understanding “Primacy” Issue for Class VI (CO2) Injection Wells

With the rapid increase in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects around the country, including right here in the Marcellus/Utica region, a key issue has arisen. Where does one store (sequester) all that carbon dioxide (CO2)? The answer is underground in a Class VI injection well. Class VI wells are a relatively new classification for injection wells, created by the federal EPA in 2010. Who regulates Class VI wells is a current flashpoint of controversy. Right now, the EPA is the primary regulator (has “primacy”) in regulating Class VI wells in all but two states (neither of which is a Marcellus/Utica state).
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Bidenistas Hold Up Permits for Carbon Projects in PA, WV, Elsewhere

On March 14, eight business groups across five states (including PA and WV) sent a letter to the federal EPA urging the EPA to expedite approvals for well permits for carbon sequestration, including allowing primacy for states. Businesses and consortia are actively pursuing significant investments in projects related to the so-called energy transition. Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is an important piece of the “transition,” both for capturing direct emissions and enabling clean hydrogen production from promised regional hydrogen hubs. CCS investments can accelerate a region’s energy transition and grow jobs. But the feds are dragging their feet. States want to take control of approving CCS projects for themselves, to speed things along–to become the primary regulatory authority. But the dysfunctional EPA is not responding. Hence the letter.
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Enverus Report Says Carbon Capture & Storage in M-U Uneconomic

Uh oh. This isn’t good news for those pegging their hopes and dreams (and financial future) on developing a hydrogen hub in the Marcellus/Utica region. The research arm of Enverus (formerly Drillinginfo), one of the most trusted, energy-dedicated SaaS platforms, offering real-time access to analytics, insights and benchmark cost and revenue data, has just released a new report examining the potential for CO2 storage in Appalachia. The report looks at the geology and the economics of storing CO2 in our region, and the results are not promising.
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Biden EPA Slow Walks Carbon Capture Permits – Holds Up IRA Money

The Biden administration is schizophrenic. On the one hand, there are those Bidenistas who are your garden-variety leftists who salute the Democrat Party and try to transform the country into the left’s vision of dystopia by passing laws, writing executive orders, and doing what they can within the existing Constitutional system established by the founders. On the other hand are the hardcore leftist anarchists who disregard law and order and blatantly disobey direct orders. It is that second batch who are blocking the distribution of money (billions) from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (actually the New Green Deal) to establish carbon capture and storage (CCS) in this country.
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LNG, Hydrogen, CCS, Renewables Delayed by Gov’t Red Tape

Joe Biden has big plans to force you to change the way you get (and consume) your energy. He wants you to use hydrogen, electricity (generated by unreliable renewable sources like wind and solar), force you to capture your carbon dioxide (the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take), and in general, use anything other than fossil energy. Joe is happy to export LNG (a nasty fossil fuel), but only because other people will use it and not you. There’s one big problem with making Joe’s dystopian future a reality: The government bureaucracy and red tape that it spins, is preventing his preferred sources of energy from getting built and used. Isn’t it delicious? The very bureaucracy the left loves and adores is strangling the left’s attempts at the forced conversion of society to alternative energy.
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PA Coughs Up $6M to House Core Samples for CCS Research

Core samples at the Pennsylvania Geological Survey on Nov. 15, 2022. Photo: Jeremy Long / WITF

Have you ever seen a core sample? What is a core sample, you ask? According to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, core samples are small portions of a formation taken from an existing well and used for geologic analysis (see the picture on the left). The sample is analyzed to determine porosity, permeability, fluid content, geologic age, and probable productivity of oil or natural gas from the site. Core samples are used to construct geologic maps of a region–like Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Geological Survey is running out of room to store its many samples and received $6 million in this year’s state budget for a new building to house its growing library of core samples. Which is important, because those who want to store carbon underground want to study those samples.
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What the Heck is a Carbon Capture/Hydrogen Hub Anyway?

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Typically when you read about a “hydrogen hub” like those that will be financed with taxpayer money in the coming years ($7 billion allocated to fund 6-10 hubs coming from the so-called infrastructure bill), you also see the term CCS or CCUS, which stands for carbon capture and sequestration (the U meaning utilization). The two are linked, hydrogen and CCS. Some 95% of all hydrogen comes from steam-cracking natural gas. Environuts insist we must capture and store the carbon dioxide that is released via the cracking process to save the planet. That’s why CCS is paired with hydrogen so often. But how, exactly, does CCS work?
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DOE Spends $2.6B from Infra Bill on Carbon Capture Projects, Pipes

Last November, Congressional Democrats (and a few RINO Republicans) passed the $1.2 trillion boondoggle referred to as the Biden infrastructure bill (see Biden So-Called $1.2T Infrastructure Bill Passes Thanks to RINOs). It was a “Hail, Mary” move aimed at trying to retain some of their power, which they will certainly lose in the 2022 election. Of the $1.2 trillion allocated over the next five-plus years, only $110 billion (or 9%) of it will actually be used for infrastructure–roads, bridges, pipelines, etc. The Biden Dept. of Energy announced yesterday it will allocate $2.6 billion of it (a paltry two-tenths of one percent) for carbon capture pilot projects and carbon dioxide pipelines. It’s a drop in the bucket.
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OGCI Invests in PA KeyState Natural Gas/CCUS Project

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Earlier this week the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) Climate Investments fund announced it is investing in the KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis project in Clinton County, PA. KeyState is developing the first carbon capture project in Pennsylvania, which will locally produce hydrogen, ammonia and urea. The $400-$500 million project will drill for the natural gas, transport and process it, and manufacture the end products–all within a self-contained, closed loop, nearly eliminating emissions by capturing and sequestering the carbon underground in the process.
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New Firm Sells Carbon Credits So Cos. Can Keep “Polluting”

A new industry has popped up to buy and sell so-called carbon credits, allowing companies that reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to offer credits for sale, and companies that “pollute” the atmosphere with CO2 to buy those credits, offsetting their evil ways. We think the Catholic practice of buying and selling indulgences for sins in the 1300s and 1400s is an accurate comparison. One such company offers a blockchain platform for buying and selling carbon credits (carbon indulgences). The company has just raised $70 million in its first round of funding.
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White House Didn’t Get Memo re CCS, Spending $2.3B to Cut CO2

Somehow the memo hasn’t yet reached the White House that the radical left base of Joe Biden’s supporters, the small minority of wackos who actually run the show, have turned their back on and now oppose carbon capture and storage (CCS) because it is a “distraction” from achieving renewable nirvana (see Enviro Radicals Turn Against Carbon Capture, Call it “Distraction”). How do we know the memo hasn’t yet reached the D.C. swamp? Because the Biden administration has just announced more than $2.3 billion for three CCS initiatives. Will the wackos show up and protest in front of the White House? Don’t hold your breath.
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Left Attacks Carbon Capture & Storage by Targeting CO2 Pipelines

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We’re pretty sure MDN was one of the first, if not THE first, to clue you in on the latest effort by the radical left to shut down anything that could possibly benefit fossil energy–including clean hydrogen and (now) carbon capture and storage (CCS). In March we told you how the left is turning against hydrogen energy (see Antis Begin to Turn Against Blending Hydrogen in NatGas Pipes). Earlier this week we told you the left is now turning against CCS (see Enviro Radicals Turn Against Carbon Capture, Call it “Distraction”). We have further evidence of how the left will try to block CCS–by attacking/blocking carbon dioxide pipelines.
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