(WO) — Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian voted against ExxonMobil’s Rose carbon capture and storage (CCS) permit on Tuesday, raising concerns about the project’s long-term safety and questioning the economics and purpose of government-supported carbon storage.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian
The Railroad Commission of Texas approved the permit in a 2–1 vote. The Rose project in Jefferson County calls for three Class VI injection wells designed to store approximately 53 million metric tons of CO₂ over a 13-year injection period.
“I am disappointed by the outcome. I remain unconvinced that the record adequately establishes the project’s long-term safety,” Christian said following the vote. “I still have not heard a convincing answer to a basic question: What is the point of permanently injecting carbon dioxide underground?”
Christian, who has previously criticized federal support for CCS, also argued that carbon storage projects rely heavily on taxpayer subsidies and could ultimately increase costs for consumers. He singled out the federal 45Q tax credit, characterizing it as government support that distorts energy markets rather than allowing CCS projects to compete on their own economics.
His dissent also focused specifically on the technical record for ExxonMobil’s Rose project. Christian cited concerns raised during the proceeding over the proposed groundwater monitoring network, the characteristics of the project’s upper confining zone and the possibility of small faults providing pathways for CO₂ migration.
Christian argued that the monitoring plan left a significant depth interval insufficiently covered and pointed to testimony questioning whether interbedded sand zones within the upper confining interval could provide an adequate seal. He also cited testimony that smaller faults not resolved by seismic data could potentially connect permeable intervals.
“Due to these safety concerns, I have a motion. I think we owe it to our constituents to know more about this permit,” Christian said in remarks before the vote. “I cannot vote to approve this permit without being completely sure that it is safe.”
ExxonMobil’s application, by contrast, states that site-specific geological characterization and modeling support safe storage at the site and that identified risks and uncertainties have been addressed through the project’s operating strategy, well design and monitoring program.
The Rose project is located approximately 15 miles southwest of Beaumont. ExxonMobil plans to inject roughly 4 million metric tons of CO₂ annually from nearby industrial sources into the Fleming and Upper Frio formations. The RRC’s project plan provides for monitoring during the 13-year injection period and for 50 years afterward, or until the commission approves a demonstration that underground drinking-water sources are no longer endangered.
Christian has taken a broader critical position on CCS policy in Texas. In 2025, he called for future Class VI permits to receive public votes by the three-member commission after an Occidental carbon storage permit was approved administratively.
In Tuesday’s remarks, Christian maintained that companies have the legal right to seek carbon-storage permits regardless of his broader policy objections, but said individual applications should be decided on the law and evidence in the record. He said his vote against Rose ultimately rested on whether the project had demonstrated adequate protection of public safety and groundwater.
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