It seems that the environmentalist movement has come to the conclusion that there is good fracking and bad fracking. Bad fracking is when we drill a well and extract hydrocarbons. Good fracking is when we expend huge sums to stuff a perfectly harmless gas back down those same holes. It’s a variation on Keynesian economics: wherever we find existing holes, we should pay people to fill them in, even if there is no need to do so. The article goes on to point out all sorts of potential problems with this idea, but then Keynesians will likely argue that remediation efforts will “stimulate” the economy.
With support from the Biden administration and billions of dollars in new subsidies and tax incentives, energy companies and others are planning to capture millions of tons of industrial carbon dioxide emissions and then pipe the climate pollutant for underground storage, part of an effort to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas pollution. Federal and state regulators are reviewing 69 projects or permits to store CO2 underground, with 24 of those in Louisiana. Nine projects have already been approved while one more, in California, is pending.