Report Shows Use of Captured Carbon Dioxide for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Will Lead to Climate Fraud and New Health Risks

Report Shows Use of Captured Carbon Dioxide for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Will Lead to Climate Fraud and New Health Risks

Massive 45Q tax credit subsidies for CO2 EOR would artificially extend oil industry’s life at taxpayer expense

Des Moines, IA & Hastings, NE – Utilizing carbon dioxide (CO2) as a means to extract more fossil oil and gas through an industry process called “enhanced oil recovery” (EOR) is almost certain not to result in reduced GHG emissions and will lead to new health hazards and risks, according to the findings of a new report released Aug. 7th by Science and Environmental Health Network and the Bold Alliance. 

The report, titled “The False Promise and Potential Health Harms of Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2 EOR) as a Tool of Climate Mitigation” (embedded below), first describes how carbon dioxide can be used to extract currently inaccessible crude oil from the ground. Next, it describes the possible future role of CO2 EOR in U.S. oil development efforts and why, counterintuitively, the oil industry is backing the massive uncapped Section 45Q federal tax credits needed to make carbon capture projects economically viable. 

The report concludes that using carbon dioxide in EOR will be more likely to lead to increased carbon emissions and perpetuation of the oil and gas industry at taxpayer expense. Its final section investigates the potential adverse health impacts of carbon capture, carbon pipelines, and EOR facilities on the people who live and work near them.  

“Enhanced oil recovery operations using human-made carbon dioxide has historically been uneconomic due to the cost of capturing carbon dioxide,” said Paul Blackburn, an advisor to the Bold Alliance and co-author of the report. “The 45Q tax credit changes that. It provides a massive federal subsidy to the oil industry in the form of billions of dollars worth of free or low cost carbon dioxide that would be used to extract more oil from the ground. We will pay for oil at the pump and through our taxes while the oil industry falsely claims that more oil drilling will protect our climate. It’s a brilliantly devious scheme.”  

“CO2 EOR operations can pose health and safety risks at every stage of the process, from the point of capture and transportation via pipeline to the wellhead and the disposal of oilfield waste,” said Ted Schettler, Science Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network & report co-author. “These should be fully taken into account by regulators and operators and made fully transparent to workers and all potentially affected community members.” 

“Carbon capture and storage in the service of oil recovery turns a greenhouse gas into a liquefied solvent and uses it to force a fossil fuel out of the ground that would otherwise stay in the ground,” said Sandra Steingraber, Senior Scientist of the Science and Environmental Health Network and report co-author. “Subsidizing enhanced oil recovery with tax credits further entrenches our ruinous dependency on oil extraction, exacerbates the climate crisis, and is tantamount to paying the arsonist an allowance.” 

About Bold Alliance:

The Bold Alliance is a network of “small and mighty” groups in rural states working to protect land and water. We fight fossil fuel projects, protect landowners against eminent domain abuse, and work for clean energy solutions while building an engaged base of citizens who care about the land, water, and climate change. (https://boldalliance.org)

About Science and Environmental Health Network:

SEHN was founded in 1994 by a consortium of North American environmental organizations concerned about the misuse of science in ways that failed to protect the environment and human health. In service to communities, the Earth and future generations, the Science and Environmental Health Network forges law, ethics, and science into tools for action. (https://www.sehn.org) 

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SEHN CO2 EOR Report Aug 5