US Company Occidental Petroleum purchased the largest carbon capture company in the world, Carbon Engineering, for $1.1 billion on Tuesday August 15. It set the goal of building 100 plants with direct air capture technology (DAC), which extracts carbon dioxide straight from our atmosphere and either stores it underground, or uses it to create fuel. On one side, people such as President Biden’s administration see this acquisition as a beneficial tool to help balance out carbon emissions. However, some say it raises the question of how ethical this purchase really is.
Occidental is a main contributor to our use of fossil fuels, a product that accounts for 90% of nearly all carbon dioxide emissions, according to the UN. While the oil industry only accounts for about 9% of emissions, the products they produce go on to cause massive destruction to our planet. Occidental’s investment in DAC technology holds many promises in pioneering the future of green methods in this polluting industry. For instance, after the announcement of the purchase, the U.S. Department of Energy has stated that part of a $1 billion federal grant will go to 30 of Occidental’s potential DAC plants located in Kleberg County, Texas. With a company the size of Occidental, DAC technology will also be able to overcome its hurdle of being commercialized and will eventually receive the momentum it needs to propel itself into the limelight. Experts have shown that if DAC technology is used across companies in the oil industry, we could neutralize our carbon emissions by 2050.
While promoting the use of DAC technology would continue to require billions upon billions of investments to prove to other corporations its reliability and its ability to generate profits, Occidental has in its purchase of Carbon Engineering taken the first step to prove that the risk of endangering a profitable industry for a more green approach is a risk worth taking.
Sources
Valle, S., & Bose, S. (2023, August 15). Occidental buys carbon air capture tech firm for $1.1 billion. Reuters. Retrieved November 7, 2023, from https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/occidental-petroleum-buy-carbon-engineering-11-bln-2023-08-15/.
