Source reporting: Texas Scorecard
The Railroad Commission of Texas is scheduled to consider ExxonMobil’s application for the Rose Carbon Capture and Storage Project on Tuesday, September 15, according to Texas Scorecard. The proposal would authorize underground storage of as much as 53 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Texas Scorecard reported that the application is among the first carbon-storage permits the commission will consider since Texas assumed primary regulatory authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in December 2025. The three-member commission regulates oil and gas, pipelines, and certain mining activities, making its decision an early test of how the state will exercise its expanded authority.
ExxonMobil maintains that the project satisfies applicable requirements and was designed for safe, permanent storage. A company spokesperson told Texas Scorecard that the technical record supported approval and that a predictable permitting process is important to investment in Texas. The company’s position is advocacy for its pending application; the commission had not voted when the article was published.
Opponents quoted by the outlet raised fiscal, energy-cost and safety concerns. Molly Vogt of American Energy Works and Texas Energy Works argued that federal tax credits could shift part of the project’s cost to taxpayers. She cited a credit of up to $180 for each ton of captured carbon and a Treasury estimate placing the nationwide cost of that credit at $30.3 billion from 2022 through 2032. Former state representative Jason Isaac also criticized the project as an extension of earlier federal energy policy.
Those figures and projections reflect the critics’ analysis, not a finding by the Railroad Commission. The article did not report a commission conclusion that the project would increase utility bills, nor did it establish that the project would claim the maximum possible federal subsidy.
The permit has statewide public-integrity significance because elected regulators are deciding how to apply a newly transferred environmental authority to a large project with potential taxpayer and energy-market effects. The commission’s record should allow Texans to evaluate technical safeguards, financial incentives, long-term monitoring obligations and any liability for stored carbon. A clear explanation of the evidence and conditions supporting the final vote will be important whether the application is approved, denied or returned for further review.