Photo by: Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer
For the last two weeks, we've led this newsletter with stories about carbon capture. We're continuing that for a third week, for good reason: Texas oil companies are eyeing carbon management as a new business venture that could transform the industry for decades to come.
Oil companies know that governments' decarbonization efforts could put their profits from selling oil and gas at risk. But it also creates an opportunity for oil companies, well versed in the mechanics of operating underground, to capture and store carbon dioxide from smokestacks or even from the atmosphere itself — a business that could eventually be worth trillions of dollars a year.
Though carbon capture and storage remain a fringe technology, Texas oil companies have invested billions into developing it since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
Critics, however, question whether the same oil companies largely responsible for the climate crisis should now get to profit from it. Skeptics also note that oil companies could be embracing carbon capture to extend the longevity of oil and gas, if companies claim no climate impact by capturing an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide as their products release.
 | Claire Hao
Energy Reporter
claire.hao@houstonchronicle.com |
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More energy news
Photo by: Marie D. De Jesús/Staff Photographer
West Texas Intermediate struggled to hold to the $80 mark last week as dismal economic data bruised market confidence.
 Photo by: Courtesy Of ERCOT | | ERCOT issued four conservation requests last week as high electricity demand threatened to surpass supply on the power grid. Each day, the potential for emergency operations was averted. | |
 Photo by: Karen Warren/Staff Photographer | | Both government and nonprofit organizations offer financial assistance for people struggling to afford their electricity bills. | |
 Photo by: Brett Coomer/Staff Photographer | | When CenterPoint asks for a rate increase and politicians say no, we are encouraged to consume ever more energy, and Texas gets ever hotter. | |
 Photo by: Broad Reach / Broad Reach | | A start-up active in the Texas battery market, the firm will be sold to a French multinational utility company. | |
 Photo by: Jon Shapley, Staff Photographer | | The German chemical company is seeking to reduce reliance on energy from Russia. | |
 Photo by: Jon Shapley/Staff Photographer | | With the deal, Permian Resources will double the size of its properties in the Permian to more than 400,000 acres. | |
What We're Reading
The multi-billion liabilities faced by Hawaiian Electric for the devastating wildfires in Maui are forcing a reckoning for power companies, many of whom have been slow to respond to climate change threats, The Washington Post reports.
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