Enhanced Oil Recovery Vs. Carbon Capture & Sequestration

Stop Selling Us a Scam We Can See Right Through

For months now, from rural police jury meetings to the halls of Congress, elected officials have been parroting the same misleading talking point: “We’ve been doing this for 40 years, so it’s nothing new.”

Governor Jeff Landry recently repeated this claim on a live radio show. United States Senator John Kennedy has also lumped Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) into the same conversation as Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) — as if they’re the same thing.
 They are not. Not even close.

1. What Is EOR?

Enhanced Oil Recovery is an oilfield technique that’s been around since the 1970s. In EOR, carbon dioxide is injected into aging oil wells to push out the remaining crude that traditional drilling can’t reach.

• Purpose: Extract more oil for profit.
  
  
• CO₂’s Role: Temporary tool — injected, circulated through the reservoir, and then much of it comes back up with the oil and is separated out.
  
  
• Endgame: More fossil fuel production, more sales, and more emissions down the line.
  
  

EOR is a short-term industrial process, managed at well sites, and usually small in geographic footprint compared to CCS proposals. It’s a means to an end — and that end is oil, not permanent carbon storage.

2. What Is CCS?

Carbon Capture & Sequestration is a whole different beast.

• Purpose: Capture CO₂ from industrial sources (or directly from the air) and inject it deep underground in geologic formations for thousands of years.
  
  
• CO₂’s Role: Supposedly permanent storage — never to return to the surface.
  
  
• Endgame: Massive networks of wells, pipelines, and monitoring sites over decades — and the public inheriting the long-term liability.
  
  

Here’s the catch: True CCS has never been done at the scale now being proposed in Louisiana and across the U.S. That means there’s no real-world track record for the kind of long-term safety they promise.

3. Why This Talking Point Is a Lie

When Rapides Parish police jury members, Governor Landry, or Senator Kennedy claim, “We’ve been doing this for 40 years,” they’re referring to EOR. That’s like saying, “We’ve been parking bicycles for decades” when you’re actually proposing to store nuclear waste.

The difference matters:

• EOR = temporary, profitable oil extraction process
  
  
• CCS = untested, permanent industrial waste disposal
  
  

One is a tool the oil industry uses for production. The other is an experimental, high-risk method that transfers liability to landowners, communities, and taxpayers for generations.

4. Follow the Money — 45Q Tax Credits

Here’s the kicker: Both EOR and CCS projects can now cash in on 45Q federal tax credits — meaning billions of taxpayer dollars are on the table.

• For EOR: The credits sweeten profits on oil extraction.
  
  
• For CCS: The credits are the only thing making these projects financially viable — without them, private investors wouldn’t touch them.
  
  

So when elected officials blur the lines between the two, they’re not “informing” you — they’re selling you a subsidy scam that props up oil production while pretending to fight climate change.

5. The Long-Term Risks of CCS

While EOR wells can be shut down when oil runs out, CCS sites are meant to be forever. That means:

• Risk of CO₂ migration into aquifers.
  
  
• Potential leakage to the surface, creating deadly low-lying CO₂ zones.
  
  
• Seismic activity from injection pressures.
  
  
• Future generations are footing the bill for monitoring and remediation.
  
  

And no — there is no proven technology for monitoring or guaranteeing the safety of these sites for centuries.

6. Stop Insulting Our Intelligence

The people of Louisiana — and across America — are not fools. We know the difference between a decades-old oilfield technique and an unprecedented industrial waste dump under our land and water.

To Governor Jeff Landry, Senator John Kennedy, and every politician, lobbyist, and corporate mouthpiece selling this false equivalence: stop pretending sequestration is the same as EOR. You’re insulting the intelligence of your constituents. You’re selling them risk while calling it safety.

Bottom line:
 EOR is a tool for oil extraction. CCS is a long-term gamble with our land, water, and future. The only thing they share is a tax credit — and that’s the real prize the industry is chasing.