By Shane Smith

On August 13th, the largest DAC (direct air capture) carbon capture plant in the United States, and second largest in the world, opened in Osage County, Oklahoma, near Shidler. The plant, dubbed Bantam, is the creation of Heimdal, Inc., in collaboration with CapturePoint, who already operates a massive carbon capture hub in Osage County in the Burbank oil field.

According to an article in the Carbon Herald on Bantam, the plant itself is predicted to capture 5,000 tons of CO2 annually. The resulting carbon dioxide will be liquefied via extreme compression and either injected into under-producing oil wells to extract the remaining oil or injected deep underground for “permanent” storage. The Bantam facility currently sits on just 5 acres, but Heimdal plans on expanding to cover 1,000 acres throughout Osage and Kay counties.

Many Republicans praised the opening of Bantam, with Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt stating: “Oklahoma has always been home to energy innovators, but Heimdal has raised the bar. Bantam will store five times more carbon than the current largest project in California, but only at a fifth of the price, making Heimdal and Oklahoma the global leader in cost-effective carbon capture,” said Governor Stitt. “I am so proud you have chosen to grow in Oklahoma, and I can’t wait to see how the project impacts Oklahomans for the better.”

In September of 2023, CapturePoint filed for permits to open two Class VI CO2 storage wells in Osage county at the Bantam facility. The company estimates that 100 million metric tons of CO2 could be permanently stored in geologic formations 4,000 feet below Osage and Kay counties, with the carbon dioxide transported via pipeline from an aviation fuel production facility in Cherryville, Kansas. In the filing, CapturePoint states that they plan to permanently store up to 14 million metric tons of CO2 at the Bantam facility over the next 25 years. Excuse me?

There has been a very strange lack of local news coverage of this fairly conspicuous event. All the energy journals covered it of course, as did many environmentalist rags. But nothing from KFOR, News 9, or the Oklahoman. Only a few national news outfits paid it any mind, and even then they did little more than regurgitate CapturePoint’s press releases. Why does no one in Oklahoma seem to be aware of this sudden, rapid advance of the carbon capture industry in our state, and why are so many of our Republican lawmakers onboard with this development?

Oklahoma’s involvement in carbon capture really ramped up in 2018, when then-governor Mary Fallin signed on to the Governors’ Partnership on Carbon Capture, setting the stage for our state to become a dumping ground for out-of-state CO2. Current governor Stitt appears to be completely in line with this goal, as shown by his glowing endorsement of the Bantam facility. How, in the reddest state in the Union, has this been allowed to happen?

This abrupt growth in carbon capture interest and investment can be traced to the expansion of the 45Q carbon tax credit contained in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), which almost doubled the amount of money doled out for captured carbon. Overnight, carbon capture became a gold rush, and investors rushed in to make a killing. But experience has shown that many of the firms claiming 45Q tax credits engage in fraud to do so. An investigation conducted by Taxpayers for Common Sense found that up to 90% of the 45Q tax credits claimed from 2010 to 2019 were based on fraud. The IRA’s expansion of 45Q will supercharge the fraud as well. We’re really placing the long-term well-being of our state and environment at the mercy of this same industry.

CO2 is an invisible, odorless, and deadly gas that is heavier than air. When it leaks, it settles on the ground, where it can harm or even kill anyone caught within range. To get an idea of just how deadly this gas can be to local populations, look at what happened at Lake Nyos in Camaroon, Africa, in 1986. The lake experienced what is called a limnic eruption, and released around 300,000 tons of CO2, which descended to surrounding villages, killing an estimated 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock. And we’re expected to accept millions of tons of CO2 to be safely injected below our state and expect it to stay there.

On February 22nd, 2020, a CO2 pipeline ruptured in Sartartia, Mississippi, and sprayed the gas for four hours. Many people lost consciousness, and 45 people were hospitalized for prolonged CO2 exposure. The US currently has over 5,300 miles of CO2 pipeline, but with the 45Q expansion, this could balloon to over 65,000.

In a report entitled, Implementing Carbon Capture and Storage Technology, the Great Plains Institute identified 29 separate facilities likely to be eligible for the 45Q tax credit, meaning that the carbon capture industry could metastasize very quickly if action isn’t taken. The report also found that 480 miles of CO2 pipeline could be added between Oklahoma and Kansas. Do the people of our state really want over 400 miles of high-pressure CO2 pipeline crisscrossing their property?

Captured CO2 doesn’t remain a gas. It’s compressed into a liquid form, known as “supercritical CO2" at a pressure of up to 2,200 psi. The carbon dioxide must maintain this extreme pressure as it travels across our state via pipeline, and as it is injected deep underground. A rupture in a CO2 pipeline is a disastrous event, where a running line rupture can set off a chain reaction where the liquified CO2 rapidly converts to a gas, ripping the tear further at a rate of 100 feet per second. Unlike natural gas, which ascends into the atmosphere if it leaks, the CO2 spreads out and settles over the land, making cleanup extremely dangerous and almost impossible. Vehicles won’t work amid a CO2 cloud, and first responders must wear sealed suits and oxygen tanks in order to approach.

How will these pipelines and permanent CO2 wells hold up to earthquakes? Only time will tell.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s 45Q expansion has opened up a can of worms, as this massive industry has set upon U.S. states like a kettle of vultures, eager to make easy riches even if it means blighting large swathes of land, and forcing future generations to deal with the fallout of the millions of tons of CO2 that will be pumped below their feet.

This is all based on the notion that the United States must seek to achieve “Net Zero” carbon emissions to fend off the wooly and discredited notion of CO2-induced climate change. But in a vain pursuit of net zero, is our government fueling a very real and very disastrous ecological disaster in this rush to pipe and inject liquified carbon dioxide? The tens of millions of tons of CO2 planned to be injected under Oklahoma will be there permanently, for all time. Why are we condemning future generations to deal with enormous and unstable burden? Who bears legal liability should the wells fail, and leak CO2 back to the surface? Even if we fill these permanent, Class VI, wells to the brim with CO2, it will only be a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of CO2 remaining in the atmosphere and continuously pumped out by global industrial economy. Is China or India injecting CO2 at the rate that the U.S. plans on doing?

Shane Smith is a pro-liberty writer based in Norman, Oklahoma. He blogs at: RepublicReborn.com