Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the latest methods climate activists are using to combat greenhouse gases and achieve “net-zero” carbon dioxide emissions. Government-funded CCS companies manage projects that capture CO2 emissions at their source and condense carbon dioxide into a liquid-like “supercritical” state. The liquified CO2 is then transported through pipelines or other means to storage sites, where it is pumped deep underground in to geologic formations. The process creates an array of problems, with one of the largest being the abrogation of private property rights—one of the most fundamental pillars the United States was founded upon.
The Problems
- Carbon capture and storage (CCS) companies are using eminent domain to seize private property in the path of their pipeline networks, on the basis that they are common carriers rather than private, for-profit carriers.
- Sequestered carbon dioxide has no productive use, and therefore can provide no public benefit, which should preclude CCS companies from being considered common carriers and therefore being granted the authority to use eminent domain.
- CCS is enormously expensive. It is propped up by vast amounts of government funding and other coercive mechanisms designed to control the
private sector, such as ESG metrics and carbon credit markets. - CCS can have dramatically deleterious impacts upon public health and the environment.
- CCS projects are proliferating rapidly across the United States and around the globe.
The Solutions
- State policymakers can explicitly bar CCS companies from being able to use eminent domain and enact stricter common carrier laws. At minimum, state policymakers can guarantee fairer compensation to property owners if their land is forcibly taken, increase pipeline safety, and ensure
there is enough truly impermeable storage space to safely house carbon dioxide. - Federal policymakers can deregulate carbon dioxide emissions and cut off all forms of federal funding for CCS projects.
Jack McPherrin is a research fellow within The Heartland Institute’s Emerging Issues Center, and also serves as Heartland’s research editor.
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is the Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy and the managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
