Carbon capture is a key pathway to meeting decarbonization goals, particularly for baseload electricity generation and hard-to-abate industrial sectors. Alongside capture technologies, enabling infrastructure is required to transport, use, and/or store captured carbon. In order to rapidly decarbonize, policymakers, regulators, utilities, and industry leaders are considering a “net-zero hub” approach to support infrastructure and workforce development in optimal regions. One of these potential hubs could be located in Houston, Texas, leveraging the region’s array of refining and petrochemical facilities, oil and gas production and transportation, skilled energy workforce, and favorable geology to position Houston as a global carbon capture leader.

On Thursday, April 28, 2022, Jackson Walker partner Michael J. Nasi joined Hon. Brent Bailey (Mississippi Public Service Commission), Mahak Agrawal (Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy), and Charles McConnell (University of Houston Center for Carbon Management) for a panel discussion on “Advancing Innovation with CCUS Hubs: A Case Study of Houston, Texas.” During the webinar, the panel shared perspectives on why Houston is a likely location for a net-zero hub, opportunities for co-located carbon capture and hydrogen production, and how regulators can deploy technologies that benefit ratepayers and the environment in Texas and beyond.

The webinar was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy-NARUC Coal Modernization and Carbon Management Partnership.

For questions related to CCUS, contact Mike at mnasi@jw.com.

Meet Mike

Michael J. Nasi serves as founder and Chair of Jackson Walker’s Climate Change & Carbon Management group and is also active in the Jackson Walker’s Environmental and Energy practice areas. His compliance counseling, permitting, and enforcement defense work spans a wide range of federal and state energy and environmental regulatory programs. Mike is counsel for parties in ongoing regulatory proceedings relating to carbon dioxide, interstate air quality, regional haze, and coal combustion residuals, including appeals pending before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He also practices before the EPA, TCEQ, the Texas Railroad Commission, and the Texas Legislature.

Mike serves as Special Counsel for Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) and is heavily involved in the Board’s CCUS-related activities, along with his many other CCUS affiliations across the country. He is also the Director of Life:Powered, Special Counsel to Wyoming’s Energy Policy Network (EPN), an advisory board member for North Dakota’s Environmental Research Center (EERC), and a visiting instructor at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin and Rice University in Houston.

To explore the Firm’s representation of energy clients in developing and deploying incentives and projects for the capture, transportation, utilization, and storage of carbon dioxide, visit the Energy and Climate Change & Green Initiatives practice pages.