On September 10, the Ohio River Valley Institute reported the $55 million Tenaska Tri-State Carbon Sequestration Hub Project is expected to permanently employ a total of four people, according to an economic impact study commissioned and funded by the company and prepared by West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Parent company Tenaska intends to develop, construct and operate 22 carbon injection well sites across six counties: Carroll, Jefferson, and Harrison Counties in Ohio; Greene and Washington Counties, Pennsylvania; and Hancock and Marshall Counties in West Virginia.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Tenaska submitted two applications for carbon injection wells in Hancock County, West Virginia earlier this year.

The agency is expected to issue its decisions on these wells by May 2026. 

West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research report models the hub’s projected employment impacts using data provided by Tenaska.

A fact sheet published by Tenaska in December 2023 claims that it will create “nearly 53 jobs” in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

However, this figure fails to distinguish between direct and indirect job creation, obscuring the fact that the economic report prepared for Tenaska estimates that the Tri-State CCS Hub is expected to permanently employ just four workers: two in Ohio and one each in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The US Department of Energy allocated $55 million to the Tri-State CCS Hub in 2023, meaning that the public cost for this project already amounts to $14 million a job.

This figure does not account for the lucrative $85 per metric ton carbon storage tax credit available to Tenaska for operating these wells.

Tenaska plans to store 5 million metric tons of carbon annually for thirty years, meaning that this project could receive $425 million in tax credits annually and more than $12 billion over the lifetime of the project.

Nationally, the US Department of Treasury estimates that companies could claim $36.15 billion in carbon storage tax credits between 2024 and 2033, demonstrating the immense cost these storage projects could impose on taxpayers.

“The 52 total permanent direct and indirect jobs Tenaska’s economic impact study says the Tri-State CCS Hub will support across the three-state region could fit on a school bus,” explains Sean O’Leary, Senior Researcher with the Ohio River Valley Institute. 

“And the four direct jobs the hub is expected to create barely amount to a blip in a three-state region that employed more than 12 million people in 2023, according to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. It’s a reminder that this and many of the projects that are touted as key components of a new hydrogen and carbon capture economy have at best minimal economic development value.”

During the construction phase, Tenaska is expected to directly employ an annual average of 1,080 short-term construction workers. The report notes that “not all of these workers will be employed on site for the entire year, as is the nature of the construction industry.”

In southwestern Pennsylvania, alternative investments in energy efficiency and distributed generation would generate thousands of jobs and curb power sector emissions by 97% by midcentury at a total cost 13% lower than investment in blue hydrogen and carbon capture technologies, modeling shows.

The technology used to capture carbon for injection is inordinately expensive and has yet to be commercially demonstrated at scale, and carbon injection and storage poses “material ongoing risks that may ultimately negate some or all the benefits it seeks to create,” according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Difficulties with industry-leading carbon storage pilot projects in Norway “cast doubt on whether the world has the technical prowess, strength of regulatory oversight, and unwavering multi-decade commitment of capital and resources needed to keep carbon dioxide permanently sequestered underground.”

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - September 7 to 13 - 12,600+ Gallon Shale Gas Wastewater Pipeline Release; 1,000 Gallon+ Subsurface Conventional Wastewater Spill; 28+ Abandoned Wells; Stray Gas Investigation In Elk Viewing Area  [PaEN]

-- DEP Finds Shale Gas Wastewater Pipeline Sprayed & Leaked 12,600+ Gallons For Nearly 3 Hours In Gilmore Twp., Greene County  [PaEN]

-- DEP Reports Subsurface Release Of An Estimated 1,000 Gallons Of Wastewater At Hebron Gas Storage Field Conventional Well In Hebron Twp., Potter County; Water Supplies Impacted, Report Well Problems To DEP Near This Facility  [PaEN]

-- DEP Issues Violation To Apex Energy (PA) LLC For Failure To Submit List Of Fracking Chemicals For 37 Shale Gas Wells Over 6 Years In Westmoreland County  [PaEN]

-- DEP Declares 21 Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Owned By Schreiner Oil & Gas Inc. Abandoned, Not Plugged In Erie, McKean Counties; 747 Violations For Conventional Well Abandonment This Year  [PaEN] 

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - September 14 [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 82 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In September 14 PA Bulletin  [PaEN] 

Related Articles This Week:

-- Cecil Township Supervisors Direct Solicitor To Prepare Ordinance Increasing Setbacks From Shale Gas Well Pads By At Least 2,500 Feet; Another Hearing, Vote Expected Nov. 4   [PaEN]

-- WESA: New Freeport, Greene County Residents File Lawsuit Against EQT Gas Drilling Company Over Contaminated Water Supplies  [PaEN]

-- Southwestern PA Community, Health Organizations To Hold Sept. 17 Online Press Event - One Year After Pitt Shale Gas Health Impacts Studies And The Failure To Fulfill Essential Promises Made To Residents  [PaEN] 

-- Susquehanna River Basin Conditions Trigger Low-Flow Water Use Restrictions At 7 Shale Gas Water Withdrawals In Bradford, Susquehanna, Tioga Counties  [PaEN]

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Approves Water Withdrawal Requests - Including 8 For Shale Gas Development; Total Of 23 In 2024 [PaEN]

-- Senate Hearing: Landowner Concerns About Liability For Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells May Be Impediment To Plugging Leaking Wells; Need To Make Plugging Programs More Effective To Deal With ‘Growing Problem’  [PaEN]

-- Groundbreaking Initiative Using Drones To Locate Orphan, Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells In Pennsylvania Kicks Off  [PaEN]

-- Baker Hughes: PA Shale Gas Drilling Rigs Drop Another 2 From Last Week To 14 - On Aug. 23 There Were 21 - 33% Drop [Effort To Raise Natural Gas Prices Continues]

-- Marcellus Drilling News: Coterra Energy Pulling All Active Marcellus Drilling Rigs From Susquehanna County Until Natural Gas Price Recovers  [PDF of Article]  [Dimock Is In This County]

-- WITF StateImpactPA - Rachel McDevitt: PA Shale Gas Drilling Slowed In 2024, Prices Expected To Rise This Winter

-- US DOE Now Accepting Applications For $15 Million In Funding To Reduce  Methane Emissions From Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells

-- House Committee Sets Sept. 17 Hearing On PA One Call Underground Utility Notification Program Reauthorization; Almost All Conventional Gas/Oil Pipelines Specifically Excluded  [PaEN]

-- PUC Publishes Final Public Utility Owned Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards In Sept. 14 PA Bulletin  [Read background here ]

-- Ohio River Valley Institute: $55 Million Federally-Funded Tenaska Carbon Geologic Sequestration Project Expected To Permanently Employ 4 People, According To A WV University Study  [PaEN]

NewsClips:

-- WESA: New Freeport, Greene County Residents File Lawsuit Against EQT Gas Drilling Company Over Contaminated Water Supplies

-- PublicSource.org: New Freeport, Greene County Residents In Federal Court Demanding Clean Water From EQT Natural Gas Company After Frack-Out 

-- Natural Resources Defense Council Blog: Fracking Loopholes Remain, With More Sick Families In Communities [Includes Pennsylvania Examples]

-- TheDailyClimate.org: PA’s CNX Resources Gas Drilling Company With More Than 2,000 Environmental Violations Selected For Federal Hydrogen Hub Environmental Justice Funding

-- TribLive Letter: Between 2016-2023 PA Households Paid 51% More For Natural Gas As LNG Gas Exports Surged; Shale Gas Drillers Accumulate 81,289 Environmental Violations - By Jan Milburn, Westmoreland County

-- Marcellus Drilling News: Coterra Energy Pulling All Active Marcellus Drilling Rigs From Susquehanna County Until Natural Gas Price Recovers  [PDF of Article]

-- The Derrick - John Barlett: An Eye In The Sky Will Seek Old Oil, Gas Wells  [PDF of Article]

-- The Center Square - Anthony Hennen: State’s $100,000+ Cost To Plug Abandoned/Orphan Wells ‘Outrageously Enormous;’ Taking Care Of Problem No Simple Task 

-- WITF StateImpactPA - Rachel McDevitt: PA Shale Gas Drilling Slowed In 2024, Prices Expected To Rise This Winter

-- RealClearEnergy.org: EQT Gas CEO Says Gas Reserves Could Sustain A 50% Increase In Production, Leaving ‘Enough Resources For Over 30 Years Of Supply;’ [Natural Gas Prices Would Be Lower If We Had More Pipelines, Storage]

-- Governing Magazine: Oil & Gas Towns Don’t Need Help Now, But They Will As World Shifts To Clean Energy

-- Bloomberg: Europe At Peak LNG Gas Consumption; LNG Overcapacity Heightens Risk Of Stranded Assets, IEEFA Says

-- Bloomberg: China’s LNG Gas Imports May Suffer As Caverns Are Filled To The Brim

-- Reuters: US Natural Gas Markets Point To Steep Price Rise In 2025; Prices Drop In Anticipation Of Latest Hurricane Hitting LNG Gas Export Facilities In Louisiana   

-- Reuters: Transco Applies For FERC Emergency Certification To Keep Operating Regional Energy Access Expansion Natural Gas Pipeline Project After Court Threw Out Permit

-- Bloomberg: NextDecade LNG Gas Export Project Paying Price For ‘Wrist Slap” Putting Thousands Of Jobs At Risk [Federal Court Ruling Striking Down FERC Permit Sending It Back For Required Environmental Review]

-- WITF StateImpactPA - Rachel McDevitt: Methane Emissions Much Higher Than Gas Industry Targets, EDF Study Says 

-- AP: Pollution Of The Potent Climate Warming Gas Methane Soars, People Mostly To Blame

-- US DOE Now Accepting Applications For $15 Million In Funding To Reduce  Methane Emissions From Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells

[Posted: September 10, 2024]

9/16/2024