Carbon Capture Coalition hosts Carbon Storage 101 Media Briefing

The Carbon Capture Coalition recently hosted its first virtual media briefing of 2024, focusing on how the US is uniquely positioned to scale carbon storage responsibly. During the event, experts briefed members of the media on pertinent issues in carbon storage and the science and safety behind the technology.

The United States’ geology offers vast potential to permanently and securely store captured carbon deep underground in appropriate geologic formations, as detailed in the US Department of Energy (DOE) Carbon Storage Atlas. As such, safe and permanent injection and storage of CO₂ in deep geologic formations represents a well-understood commercial practice worldwide.

The longest operating CO₂ storage facility, the Sleipner carbon capture and storage project operating offshore of Norway in the North Sea, has safely and permanently stored about one million metric tons of CO₂ annually since storage operations began in 1996.

The carbon management industry is at a unique turning point, and the next few years will prove critical to ensuring that these technologies can scale up to meet climate ambition. Domestically, the ingredients for success are coming together — geologic storage potential, available technologies ready to deploy, and a strong foundation of supportive federal policies to ensure carbon management projects can scale to help reach midcentury net zero climate goals.

At the briefing, academic, NGO, and industry participants highlighted the potential for accelerating the deployment of safe and permanent CO₂ storage and its important role among a diverse set of climate mitigation strategies. In addition, participants highlighted exciting storage projects underway across the nation. Overall, the speakers highlighted carbon storage as a significant technology within the full suite of carbon management technologies and reinforced its ability to be a safe, effective, and secure part of the climate solution. 

“There’s an incredible amount of CO₂ storage potential in the United States. We’re uniquely blessed in the world with massive, not just CO₂ storage, but technical capability and a dedicated history of storing [CO₂] successfully,” said Jack Andreasen of Breakthrough Energy during his remarks on the federal landscape for carbon storage. “According to the United States Geological Survey, there’s an estimate of about 130 million acres of federal lands that overlay with suitable carbon storage and capacity for more than 36 trillion metric tons of CO₂ to be stored offshore.”

The panelists included:

• Ben Grove; Clean Air Task Force; Carbon Storage Manager
• Vikrum Aiyer; Heirloom; Head of Global Public Policy & External Affairs
• Sallie Greenberg; Principal Owner, Sallie Greenberg Consulting
• Fred McLaughlin; University of Wyoming; Director for the Center for Economic Geology Research, School of Energy Resources
• Jack Andreasen; Breakthrough Energy; Manager, Carbon Management, US Policy and Advocacy

“Carbon removal and why we need carbon storage now is not just because of the science being unequivocal, but we’re also seeing a lot of private industry interest in making sure that they can purchase removals and sign offtake agreements,” said Vikrum Aiyer of Heirloom during his remarks on the imperative to deploy carbon removal and storage. “I think that demonstrates that, since there’s an increasing amount of demand from the private sector to manage and create a supply of carbon removals, we’ll need the commensurate storage capacity to make sure that we are being able to store that and complete the entire removal equation.”

“There’s a significant amount of characterization and monitoring that goes into a carbon storage project, and the permitting process is the best and most rigorous way that we have of ensuring that the protection of human health and the environment is taking place,” Sallie Greenberg, Principal Owner of Sallie Greenburg Consulting and formerly the Principal Scientist at the Illinois State Geological Survey pointed out in her remarks on the safety of long-term CO₂ storage. “There is a federal and state process for the regulation of protecting underground sources of drinking water.”

The briefing was moderated by Ben Finzel, President of RENEWPR. The briefing concluded with a moderated Q&A session with participating reporters. View the recording of the briefing here. 

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The Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, conservation and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economywide, commercial scale deployment of carbon management technologies. This includes carbon capture, removal, transport, reuse, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air. Members of the Coalition work together to advocate for the full portfolio of policies required to commercialize a domestic carbon management sector and inform policymakers as well as stakeholders on the essential role this suite of technologies must play in achieving these shared objectives.