Buried Promises: The Land Cost of Carbon Sequestration

Carbon sequestration is the latest darling of climate policy—sold as a miracle fix that lets polluters keep polluting while pretending to care. Oil and gas giants call it “innovative.” Politicians like Bill Cassidy call it “necessary.” But on the ground, it’s a land-wrecking, water-risking, community-erasing shell game. And the public? Still hypnotized by the greenwashed glow of corporate PR.

Let’s be clear: carbon capture and storage (CCS) isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about saving face. It’s a license for fossil fuel companies to keep drilling, keep emitting, and keep cashing in—while burying their mess in someone else’s backyard.

Carbon Sequestration Is Destroying Land, Not Saving It

Injecting CO₂ underground sounds clean on paper. In reality, it destabilizes ecosystems, alters soil chemistry, and risks seismic activity. Farmland becomes a test site. Forests become collateral damage. And communities—especially rural and Indigenous ones—become expendable.

CO₂ doesn’t just sit quietly underground. It migrates. It leaks. It acidifies groundwater. And when it does, the companies responsible shrug, point to their “net zero” pledges, and move on.

Water at Risk, Truth on Life Support

Carbon sequestration sites have already raised alarms about aquifer contamination. Acidified water isn’t just a theoretical risk—it’s a documented outcome. But regulators, ever cozy with industry, downplay the danger. After all, when has Big Oil ever been wrong?

The Math of Deception

Here’s the kicker: CCS doesn’t reduce emissions. It rearranges them. Companies capture a fraction of what they emit, bury it, and call it progress. Meanwhile, they ramp up production, expand drilling, and lobby for subsidies to fund their “green” transition.

It’s like setting your house on fire, spraying a corner with water, and demanding a medal for firefighting.

Communities Sacrificed for Optics

Carbon sequestration projects rarely ask for consent. They target low-income areas, offer vague promises of “jobs,” and bulldoze ahead with minimal oversight. The result? Displacement, environmental degradation, and a deepening distrust of climate policy.

Even in Louisiana—where oil and gas often write the rules—some leaders are finally pushing back. Senate candidate John Fleming has made headlines for calling out Big Oil’s unchecked influence and demanding accountability for environmental damage across the Gulf Coast. It’s a rare stance in a state where fossil fuel loyalty runs deep, and it’s exactly the kind of political courage this moment demands.

Climate Theater, Not Climate Action

Let’s stop pretending this is about the planet. CCS is a performance—a billion-dollar illusion designed to protect profits, not people. It’s the same playbook oil and gas companies have used for decades: deny, distract, and delay.

And now they’ve added a green curtain.

Final Word

Senator Bill Cassidy claims carbon capture is “creating jobs.” Sure—jobs to bury waste, bulldoze ecosystems, and greenwash the Gulf Coast into oblivion. When those underground storage sites fill up, they’ll just move to the next parish like cockroaches with a shovel. This isn’t climate action. It’s climate extraction.

If you want to see what real CO₂ innovation looks like, read this article on how carbon can be used in manufacturing—fuel, concrete, even food. We don’t need to bury carbon. We need to stop burying the truth.

Carbon sequestration isn’t a solution. It’s a symptom—of a system that refuses to change, refuses to listen, and refuses to take responsibility. Until we stop letting polluters write the rules, the only thing getting buried is the truth.