Recently the federal government announced plans to change its rules to allow Carbon Capture and Storage in national forests, which could allow the gas and oil industry to store carbon dioxide in national forests. Ohio’s only national forest—the Wayne National Forest—could be a candidate for this storage. The U.S. Forest Service’s rule change would allow carbon dioxide captured directly from the air or industrial processes like oil and gas production to be stored permanently in injection wells 3000 feet below public lands like Wayne National Forest.

If the rule change is permitted, and new injection wells are allowed in our national forests, more fracking may result, increasing carbon and methane emissions and causing more forest habitat and environmental degradation.

Ohio’s inclusion in the proposed Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub is hugely concerning. The proposed “blue hydrogen hub” would make hydrogen methane gas from fracking and “capture” the carbon dioxide emissions. The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub, at the nexus of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, will profit from these credits. The Biden Administration’s new rules will give federal tax credits per ton of captured carbon dioxide from power plants. But those plants will release additional carbon dioxide during the very process of capturing carbon.

This unproven technology worries some scientists. Save Ohio Parks and other environmentalists, scientists and climatologists across the nation say that government support of CCS allows the fossil fuel industry to ignore the climate crisis and permit oil and gas companies to keep drilling while the nation tries to reduce its carbon and methane air emissions.

Jim Furnish, a retired U.S. Forest Service deputy chief who consults on forestry issues, told Grist the proposed rule change was a reversal of historic Forest Service policy that only allows temporary use of forest service lands, usually from five to 20 years. He called the rule change a “powerful incentive to continue to burn fossil fuels” and the “opposite of a virtuous cycle.”

Public comments to let the U.S. government know carbon capture is not a safe or sustainable way to use our national forests are due Tuesday, Jan. 2. About 140 groups have called for an extension to the comment period, but a decision was not made by Dec. 23.

The proposed rule, “Land Uses; Special Uses; Carbon Capture and Storage Exemption,” and instructions on how to comment are available in the Federal Register at https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-24341.

Comments, identified by RIN 0596–AD55 in an email subject line, may be sent through the Federal eRulemaking Portal by Jan. 2, or by visiting: https://bit.ly/3NzSR84.