Produced Water & Carbon Capture
Technologies like these are innovations in the energy production sector that should be encouraged, and protected from state interference.
House Committee on Energy Resources
The issues of carbon capture and sequestration and produced water are very similar. Essentially, both involve what can be done with the byproducts of oil and gas production while being a good steward of the earth and mitigating the costs of those actions. In the case of CO2 and produced water, these are simply waste materials that are not needed by the oil and gas industry. Private industry began capturing and maintaining a supply of them in above-ground containers and underground wells. As a result of this supply, industrious individuals operating in a free market have found numerous potential uses for the materials, and a new market has emerged.
Texas should allow this market to flourish, allowing the parties involved to succeed or fail on their own merits without unnecessary government intervention. The state should neither subsidize nor impede the industry and should eliminate any existing policies that distort the market. Essentially, in the case of both the CO2 and produced water markets, the state should stay out of the way and let private industry store, buy, sell, or trade these products without excess intervention. The only action that the legislature should take is removing any barriers that prohibit the free trade of these goods for innovative and industrious purposes.
Read the full testimony in the link above.
