Nearly two dozen bills before the Legislature, by Republicans and Democrats, would thrust Texas into the national debate on dealing with climate change. Their aims range from capping the state's CO2 emissions to positioning Texas to become, as some put it, the Saudi Arabia of carbon disposal.
Texas' new interest in climate change has less to do with scientists' warnings over higher global average temperatures than with having a voice in national decisions and creating new business opportunities.
To illustrate, the House "carbon caucus," led by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, doesn't debate people's role in global warming. The only topic, Chisum says, is what Texas will do about it.
Texas may be joining late, however. Most states have climate change plans, and 31 are involved in ongoing or planned regional efforts to limit emissions. Their experience, some experts say, could let them shape federal proposals in ways Texas cannot.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson is moving toward requiring reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, declaring global warming a health risk, and writing rules for underground CO2 storage – actions that were off-limits under President George W. Bush.
This year, cap-and-trade legislation to limit CO2 and other emissions linked to global warming could pass the U.S. House and at least get a Senate hearing. Under cap-and-trade, the government caps emissions and companies buy and sell authorizations to emit. Authorized emissions drop over time. The system helped slash sulfur dioxide responsible for acid rain, but CO2 would be more complex.
A Texas House bill by Rep. Ana E. Hernandez, D-Houston, would set up a Texas CO2 cap-and-trade system like regional efforts elsewhere. Even if it passes, federal action might supplant a Texas system.
Still, said Judi Greenwald of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Va., Texas' experience would help it shape federal plans.
"It's really an educational process for the state itself," said Greenwald, the Pew Center's vice president for innovative solutions.
New business prospects
Texas already leads the nation in climate-friendly wind power, and new technology being developed in Texas could make the state a trendsetter in solar energy. Texas also has been a leader in renewable energy requirements for power companies.
The state also is uniquely situated, experts say, to become the leader in
carbon capture and storage – putting CO2 underground instead of into the atmosphere. Burning coal releases more CO2 than oil or natural gas, so sequestering carbon is critical to so-called clean coal technology.
"If you look at where these companies reside that know this technology, they're nearly all in Texas," Steve Melzer, president of the Texas
Carbon Capture and
Storage Association, an industry group, told a recent joint hearing of the Texas House's energy and environmental committees.
Several bills in Austin would boost carbon storage with state incentives.
Texas has 35 years' experience in injecting compressed CO2 into otherwise exhausted oilfields, forcing out more oil. About 4 percent of U.S. oil production comes from enhanced recovery, nearly all in West Texas' Permian Basin.
It has proved safe to date, with no major problems from 13,000 wells that inject about 30 million tons of CO2 a year, according to the University of Texas' Bureau of Economic Geology. Even after recovered oil is burned, the process cuts net CO2 emissions about 20 percent.
Recovered oil would help offset the cost of new CO2 pipelines, as high as $1 million per mile. All of Texas' oilfields, however, could only hold a year's worth of Texas CO2 emissions, nearly 700 million tons. To store the much bigger quantities needed to slow
global warming, Texas would look to the Gulf of Mexico.
That region could become the home of a new Texas industry: injecting vast amounts of CO2 from industries and power plants into
offshore geological formations where, experts say, it would almost certainly remain in place for 1,000 years or more. Still, the deposits would need new rules and monitoring.
Competing bills in Austin would put either the Texas Railroad Commission, closely tied to the oil and gas industry, or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's pollution police, in charge.
A coal makeover
Despite its big-oil image, Texas is slightly less dependent upon fossil fuels for its energy than the world – 87 percent worldwide, 82 percent in Texas, with the rest from nuclear, hydroelectricity and renewables.
Still, Texas leads in U.S. coal use and CO2 emissions, accounting for about one-tenth of U.S. emissions. Texas' CO2 emissions would jump nearly 13 percent if all the coal plants now planned with no carbon capture were built, noted Tom "Smitty" Smith, Texas director for Public Citizen.
Even with carbon capture, many environmental groups oppose coal for its overall pollution and environmental damage from mining, transportation and waste disposal. As long as coal remains, they say, action is needed to lessen its climate impact.
Some new Texas power plants would turn coal into cleaner-burning gas, allowing the capture of CO2. Washington-based Summit Power plans a plant near Midland-Odessa, and Nebraska-based Tenaska has plans for a site near Sweetwater. Last week Texas issued a permit for a plant at Freeport that will gasify petroleum coke, a coal-like refinery byproduct, and capture all the CO2.
Such changes have created informal alliances.
"There are projects in Texas that would capture, for coal, the carbon dioxide and store it underground," John Thompson of the Clean Air Task Force, a national environmental organization, told Texas legislators recently.
"It is imperative that you get those projects across the finish line."
source:
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