Global multi-energy company Repsol is partnering with Carbonvert and Mitsui to help safely capture and store carbon emissions from the Coastal Bend.
"They’re trying to figure out this as they go. We’re going to be the guinea pigs. I don’t want to do that," Coastal Watch Association member Patrick Nye said.
That's what Nye said as he discussed the upcoming project offshore of Corpus Christi. As a geologist for over 40 years, Nye said creating a hub for carbon can significantly impact the environment long term.
“You can have pipelines that can corrode and that can cause leaks and all kinds of problems there. You have to have it offshore. That’s three times, if not, five times more expensive," Nye added.
That statement is similar to what Melissa Zamora thinks. She doesn’t believe the project will be efficient for the region and raised concerns that this particular method could regurgitate the chemicals back into the ecosystem.
“It seems more like a band-aid approach to allow these industries to continue polluting our environment and say that ‘Oh it’s okay that we continue to emit carbon because we’re just going to go ahead and store it,'" Zamora mentioned.
Recently, the Texas General Land Office and Repsol signed an agreement and secured the lease terms for a contract for more than 140,000 gross acres of pore space, which is owned by the Texas Permanent School Fund. Repsol considers the project innovative and said the captured carbon emissions from the Coastal Bend industrial region will be stored approximately 1.5 miles underneath the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Repsol, the carbon storage hub will be in close proximity to more than 35 million metric tons per year of existing industrial emissions. The company believes this project will support a globally competitive carbon storage hub that can provide significant economic and environmental benefits to the Coastal Bend, including the Port of Corpus Christi.
“We need to preserve natural carbon sinks like our wetlands, like our seagrass beds, like planting more trees and putting more native species in the groups; versus just coming in with an artificial way to capture this carbon," Zamora said.
Although the project is in its early stages and more to come soon, other groups like the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries have met with Repsol to discuss how the project could impact the community.
KRIS 6 News reached out to Repsol, but were unable to get an interview. As of now, it's unclear where the storage site will be located.
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