Texas Should Lead the Low-Carbon Intensity Energy Market

Over the past year (2024-2025), in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation’s energy program convened an ad hoc group with a diverse range of Texas stakeholders in a series of discussions about the risks, opportunities, facts, and perceptions of carbon capture, transport, conversion, and/or sequestration (collectively referred to as carbon management or carbon resource management).

To that end, the ad hoc group developed some preliminary observations (i.e., a Texas narrative on carbon management) that it believes will help multiple stakeholders in Texas commence a thoughtful examination of this important issue.

Texas Should Lead the Low Carbon Intensity Energy Market

Among many intricate energy issues in Texas, carbon management is unique and becoming an important economic issue for Texas. The stakeholders in our discussions believe more carbon management is coming to Texas and that we will be best served by a thoughtful, non-partisan, scientific examination of and plan for this likely trend. Unfortunately, carbon management isn’t on the radar of many elected and appointed leaders in Texas. Whether they support carbon management expansion or not many stakeholders believe that Texas should act proactively to get ahead of this trend to minimize risks and maximize benefits.

The probable expansion of carbon capture, utilization, storage, and management resources (CCS, CCUS, DAC, CDR. etc.) presents opportunities and risks for Texas, including economic growth, local jobs, energy industry expansion, and air quality, climate, water, and community impacts. Preparing now for this expected expansion is the smartest way to seize the potential opportunities and address potential risks. Texas should plan for some of the anticipated policy, economic, and societal considerations that carbon management necessitates:

• Globally and in Texas, the energy industry is expanding into new markets, including carbon (resource) management. Oil and gas companies are preparing for a lower-carbon future globally and investing in carbon capture and storage. More and more energy importers include low/lower carbon intensity requirements in their sourcing decisions.

• Public and private dollars are being invested in low-carbon hydrogen projects that rely on carbon storage to be viable. For example, carbon management is intrinsically connected to the burgeoning hydrogen economy in Texas, particularly through the expansion of low-carbon-intensity hydrogen produced with natural gas.

• Texas has significant competitive advantages, and most industry experts expect carbon to expand significantly here. It leads the nation in existing carbon storage wells and volume and has the most potential (unused) geologic capacity. Already, carbon storage in Texas is estimated to increase by up to 500 million metric tons by 2050.

• Texas has 20,000 miles of existing natural gas, oil and CO2 pipelines and a ready workforce with a century of pipeline and well management experience. The National Petroleum Council projected between $15-150 billion in carbon management investment in Texas through 2050.

• The $5B Texas Energy Fund incentivizes the construction of new gas-fired power plants to remedy recent grid reliability concerns. Carbon management will be necessary to deploy this infrastructure in a way that successfully manages Texas’ pollution behind and in front of the meter.

It is realistic to anticipate that the market and infrastructure for carbon management is as likely to grow in the next decades as shale resource development was in the past decade. Texas’ geological carbon storage potential is too great for the market to ignore. The energy industry is moving in this direction, and its experience, infrastructure and footprint in Texas are extensive.

Despite recognition from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that carbon capture will be necessary to achieve important and dramatic emissions reductions, many in the environmental advocacy community are wary. Some community activists see carbon management as an industry strategy to extend the life of existing energy infrastructure that pollutes their neighborhoods and fear that a growing carbon market in Texas puts corporate needs unfairly over the health and safety of the people who live there. They are rightly concerned about the lack of rules regarding the health and environmental impacts of carbon capture and storage facilities in their communities.

Courtesy: Andrew R. Waxman, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin (Carbon Management Workshop, 2025, based on the 1975 EU Waste Framework Directive).

By contrast, some elected officials think carbon capture and storage is too expensive or unnecessary. Yet carbon management investment is already happening in Texas (and Louisiana) – Texas has more carbon storage wells than any other state – and it’s widely assumed within the industry that Texas is primed to lead this new trend.

Getting ahead of trends is the best way to maximize potential and minimize risk, but Texas is not yet preparing for carbon management like other Gulf Coast states, like Louisiana, appear to be.

In fact, carbon management isn’t even on the radar of many elected and appointed leaders. For stakeholders who believe – whether they support carbon management expansion or not – that Texas should get ahead of this trend to minimize risks and maximize benefits, there’s still work to do to convince Texas leaders they should act proactively.

Courtesy: https://www.energy.gov/lpo/articles/lpo-tech-talk-carbon-management

The science, global industry trends, economic potential and known risks of carbon management clearly support a proactive approach in Texas. But before we convince decision-makers of the exact steps they should take; we must convince them they should act now. We’ll do that with fact-based, non-partisan appeals to the wisdom of acting now to seize the benefits of this coming trend and mitigate its potential risks.

• Globally and in Texas, the energy industry is expanding into new markets, including carbon management.

• Texas has significant competitive advantages, and most industry experts expect carbon management to expand significantly here.

• Depending on how we prepare for this coming trend, carbon management expansion presents both opportunities and risks for Texas, including economic growth, energy industry expansion, and air quality, climate, water and community protection and impacts.

• Preparing now for this expected expansion is the smartest way to seize the potential opportunities and address potential risks. We should plan for this, not react to it.

CLICK TO VIEW the Clean Air Task Force's brief video explainer on 'How does the storage of CO2 work, and is it permanent and secure?'

For additional information, contact Brett Holmes at bholmes@cgmf.org or (713) 244-4178.

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