WASHINGTON – A carbon removal project south of Corpus Christi is one of two sites selected by the Department of Energy to receive up to $1.2 billion to support the development of direct air capture technology.
The project, which is being developed by Houston-based oil company Occidental Petroleum, is set on more than 100,000 acres on the famed King Ranch in South Texas and is designed to eventually remove up to 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.
“Essentially these are giant vacuums that can suck decades of old carbon pollution right out of the sky,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said. “If we deploy that at scale, this technology can help us make serious headway toward our net-zero emissions goals, while we are focused on deploying, deploying, deploying more clean energy at the same time.”
The department also selected a project in southwest Louisiana being developed by Battelle, a nonprofit technology firm from Ohio. Both projects are slated to initially capture and permanently store up to 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
The Biden administration, along with the United Nations, has identified carbon removal technologies as critical to get global greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century to avoid the more severe consequences of climate change. Under last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, companies can earn $180 in tax credits for every ton of carbon they remove directly from the atmosphere.
Direct air capture is being looked at by Occidental and other oil companies as part of a larger carbon management strategy designed to offset emissions from oil and gas production. Last year Occidental began construction in West Texas on its first direct air capture facility, with a capacity of 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year — half of what is initially planned at the South Texas project.
The technology has drawn criticism from some environmentalists, who argue it is just a means for oil companies to extend the life of fossil fuels and that the money would be better spent expanding renewable energy.
In a press call Wednesday, Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub described direct air capture as, “a necessary solution to reduce carbon emissions.”
“We very much appreciate the Biden administration and Department of Energy’s leadership to position the United States as the location to demonstrate the commercial viability of direct air capture at climate relevant scales,” she said.
The $1.2 billion awarded represents less than half the $3.5 billion Congress designated for developing direct air capture hubs under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Work on awarding funding for two additional hubs is expected to begin next year, according to the Department of Energy.
