PA Environment Digest Blog: 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

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:

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-- 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]