Washington, DC — Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced that the Tri-State Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Hub has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (OFECM) to negotiate for up to $69 million in federal funding through Chairman Manchin’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The funding will help to conduct a site characterization study of four geologic carbon storage systems for the Tri-State CCS Hub supporting West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“I’ve always said that we can’t eliminate our way to a cleaner environment, but we can innovate our way there. The United States can produce fossil fuels cleaner than anywhere else in the world, and CCS is a crucial technology that will help strengthen our energy security while reducing emissions. I could not be prouder that West Virginia continues to lead the way in energy innovation,” said Chairman Manchin. 

Chairman Manchin previously wrote a letter in support of the Tri-State CCS Hub. To view the letter, please click here.

Project Details:

Tri-State CO₂ Storage Hub; Tri-State Project — Southern States Energy Board (Peachtree Corner, Georgia) intends to characterize four stacked geologic reservoir and caprock carbon storage systems in the West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania region to better understand suitability for CO₂storage and caprock competence. Currently, the region has no viable CO₂ storage solutions despite a clear customer base (131 industrial facilities within 50 miles of the proposed project site that report nearly 47 million Mt of CO₂ emissions per year). Thus, this project aims to construct the Tri-State Carbon Capture and Storage Hub to support the decarbonization of the region. The project will characterize the target formations using data from geophysical methods and data obtained from the drilling of three characterization wells. The project will develop a Community Benefits Plan to initiate broad engagement and collaboration between Ohio and West Virginia state agencies. The Community Benefits Plan also calls for establishing and maintaining a Community Advisory Board, hosting pre-drilling community engagement events, building and supporting competencies regarding subsurface modeling to support UIC Class VI permitting, establishing and growing relationships with regional Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and supporting exposure to carbon capture and storage and energy transition career opportunities. The project team will submit all the necessary documentation to augment pending Class VI permit application(s).

DOE Funding: $55,248,174
Non-DOE Funding: $13,812,663
Total: $69,060,837 

For more information from the U.S. Department of Energy, click here.