THE NEXT BIG IDEA?
Houston should develop a plan to create a credit reserve of carbon dioxide that companies can turn to in the future
HOW many of you remember when the closures of iron and steel plants and the related industries occurred in the states bordering the Great Lakes, leading to what is known as the “Rust Belt”? How many remember the legions of fans rooting for Detroit and Pittsburgh and New York at Rockets and Oilers and Astros home games?
An economic wave similar to the one that hit the iron and steel and coal industries lies ahead for the oil and gas industry, and Houston is at the center of the bull’s-eye. The tsunami is climate change, and the global response to it. There are solutions, but we must identify and begin to implement them.
The Earth’s climate is changing, and humans are at the center of it. You can argue about it all you want, but the reality is that the facts keep piling up, and the world is responding.
The culprit is carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, along with methane and other gases that capture energy from sunlight in a way similar to the heating effect of a greenhouse. As more greenhouse gases are emitted, the negative climate effects increase.
Houston and Harris County are at the center of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Harris County’s refining and chemical complex along with our pattern of automobile use was estimated by Purdue University to emit about 68 million tons of carbon dioxide, the highest county total in the United States.
This pattern of greenhouse gas emissions is not sustainable into the future. We, as a community dependent upon these industries and the jobs they provide, need to find a way to address this issue, or we will find ourselves exactly where the Rust Belt was back in the 1980s — losing population, losing hope.
Denial of climate change and the role of humans is not useful in the long term. This issue is not going away. In fact, this issue becomes more pronounced with every new 100-year or 500-year storm to hit Houston or elsewhere, or each new heat record or worse drought.
If we accept that climate change is real and that we need to do something about it, then we, as a community, have options. In particular, we can set up a carbon storage plan that will act as an insurance policy for the future. Let me explain. Carbon dioxide naturally cycles from the atmosphere into trees and plants
and into the soil through photosynthesis. This solid carbon takes the form of carbohydrates such as cellulose (the major bulk of wood products) or sugars. When these decompose or are eaten, carbon dioxide is expelled back into the atmosphere, closing the cycle. If we want to continue to burn hydrocarbons into the future, then we need to develop a plan to remove the excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Oil and gas company researchers have extensively researched capturing carbon dioxide through technology and injecting it deep into the subsurface. Unfortunately, the results thus far indicate that these alternatives are expensive and cannot be implemented at a scale large enough to address this problem that involves tens of billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
On the other hand, the soil of the Earth has a tremendous capacity to receive and store more carbon.
Research undertaken at the SSPEED Center at Rice University indicates that the ranching and farming communities of Texas and the United States represent the solution to a major piece of the carbon dioxide puzzle.
Studies in the peerreviewed literature indicate that certain types of cattle management and ecosystem restoration approaches can sequester as much as 5 tons of carbon dioxide per acre per year.
At $20 per ton of carbon dioxide stored, a rancher could add about $100 per acre per year to their income. Similarly, a marsh or prairie or bottomland restoration project could also generate substantial income per acre per year while providing ecological benefits as well.
At this time, our research indicates that while there is a significant amount of soil storage capacity, it is not enough to support all existing carbon dioxide emissions. That situation will only worsen in the future. On the other hand, today significant supplies of unclaimed carbon dioxide storage rights exist or can be developed.
Houston today needs to start developing a plan for creating a reserve of carbon dioxide credits that can be used to help or supplement companies that might find themselves in trouble at a future time. When these credits become limited is not the time to buy. The time to buy, like with all commodities, is when demand, and price, is low.
So, what would it take to sequester the carbon footprint of Harris County? In order to store 68 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the soil, a minimum of just over 14 million acres would be required at a rate of about 5 tons of carbon dioxide per acre, which is high and can be achieved by adaptive multi-paddock grazing techniques, with a restored native prairie being less. That’s almost 9 percent of the surface area of Texas, but it’s doable.
The point is that at this point in time, these carbon storage rights exist. If the city or the county were to act to secure these rights, then companies that failed to make early purchases could buy from the city and maintain their business. In this manner, our economic base can be protected into the future.
As a practical matter, this concept of securing carbon rights is consistent with several other goals of the city and the county. The protection of prairie lands to the west of town is important for flood protection. The protection of pastures and forests to the north is consistent with protection of the city’s water supply. And the maintenance of ranching activities along the coast acts to ensure that hurricane-related damages will be limited and that fish and wildlife values will be increased.
Carbon farming will be a reality in the future. And it should be a part of the long-term thinking of the city of Houston. Our economy depends upon it.