CLYMERS, INDIANA — Andersons Renewables proposed a project to capture carbon dioxide from an ethanol plant in Clymers, Indiana, compress it, and inject it more than 3,000 feet underground into geologic formations for storage. The initiative represents one of several carbon capture and storage efforts advancing in the U.S. ethanol industry under federal tax incentives.

The company stated the project uses safe, established technology with rigorous permitting, engineering, and monitoring processes to protect groundwater, public health, and the environment. Andersons Renewables also said it determined the site's suitability through seismic analysis and by drilling a test well.

At the time the project was proposed, Andersons Renewables was partly owned by a subsidiary of Marathon Oil. The proposal coincides with financial incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act, which offers companies $85 in transferable tax credits for each ton of point-source carbon stored through the 45Q program. A project sequestering 200,000 metric tons of carbon per year can earn $17 million annually under this credit.

Some residents in Clymers, Indiana, were asked to accept $150 a year in exchange for allowing a carbon sink under their properties. The community faces economic and infrastructure challenges: the local school is closed, the old Methodist church has been demolished, and Clymers has high poverty rates, contaminated well water, and lacks sewage facilities.

Why It Matters

Carbon capture and storage is promoted as a climate mitigation tool, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stating it could help limit global heating if implemented alongside deep fossil fuel emissions cuts, though the panel cautioned against overreliance on the technology. Meanwhile, tax credits like those in the 45Q program have drawn scrutiny for their scale; research published in 2023 in the Environmental Claims Journal examined how to strengthen the federal carbon capture tax credit, while a 2019 study in Energy Policy analyzed the 45Q provisions as a model for incentive design in other countries.