Testimony of Carroll Muffett President & CEO, Center for International Environmental Law Before the US House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources

The testimony asserts that CCUS is not a viable climate solution, citing its failure to meet capture targets, high costs compared to renewables, and the risk of increasing lifecycle emissions. It highlights that most captured carbon is used for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), which produces more CO2 than it captures. The author warns of significant safety risks from CO2 pipelines and the environmental dangers of offshore storage in the Gulf of Mexico, where legacy oil and gas wells increase the likelihood of leaks and ocean acidification.

• CCUS is described as ineffective and counter-productive, with existing facilities capturing only about 0.1% of annual global CO2 emissions from industrial processes and energy combustion.
• The majority of CCUS capacity in the United States is dedicated to Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), a process that uses captured carbon to produce more oil and gas, thereby generating more CO2 emissions than are captured.
• CCUS projects frequently fail to meet performance targets; for example, the Gorgon gas separation plant in Australia failed to meet its five-year capture target of 80% CO2.
• The energy-intensive nature of carbon capture can increase the energy requirements of a facility by 20-30% or more, potentially increasing lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions and other criteria pollutants.
• CCUS is economically unviable compared to renewables; the IPCC ranks it as one of the highest cost, lowest potential options, with wind and solar potentially being $50-$200 cheaper per ton of CO2 equivalent by 2030.
• Industrial application of CCUS is limited; a 2020 study found that only 123 out of over 1,500 US industrial facilities could capture carbon economically, representing only 8% of all US industrial emissions.
• CO2 pipeline transportation poses severe safety risks, as demonstrated by a February 2020 rupture in Mississippi that led to dozens of hospitalizations and hundreds of evacuations.
• Offshore storage in the Gulf of Mexico is particularly risky due to the presence of legacy wells and the difficulty of monitoring subsea injection sites, which could lead to ocean acidification and leaks into the atmosphere.

APA

Muffett, C. (2022). Testimony of Carroll Muffett President & CEO, Center for International Environmental Law Before the US House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Carroll-Muffett-Testimony-on-The-Opportunities-and-Risks-of-Offshore-Carbon-Storage-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico_28april2022.pdf

Chicago

Muffett, Carroll. Testimony of Carroll Muffett President & CEO, Center for International Environmental Law Before the US House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. Center for International Environmental Law, 2022. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Carroll-Muffett-Testimony-on-The-Opportunities-and-Risks-of-Offshore-Carbon-Storage-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico_28april2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Muffett |first1=Carroll |title=Testimony of Carroll Muffett President & CEO, Center for International Environmental Law Before the US House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=28 April 2022 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Carroll-Muffett-Testimony-on-The-Opportunities-and-Risks-of-Offshore-Carbon-Storage-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico_28april2022.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{muffett2022testimony, author = {Muffett, Carroll}, title = {{Testimony of Carroll Muffett President \& CEO, Center for International Environmental Law Before the US House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2022}, month = apr, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Carroll-Muffett-Testimony-on-The-Opportunities-and-Risks-of-Offshore-Carbon-Storage-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico_28april2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }