Cutting Carbon in DFW Without Cutting Energy

As the third fastest-growing metropolitan area in the U.S., Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) is experiencing a rapid rise in energy demand. This boom in residents and businesses has brought major economic benefits and driven the expansion of industrial activity and power generation, along with significantly increasing CO₂ output. As of 2025, Dallas ranks 5th in the nation amongst cities for total carbon emissions, and with its population continuing to surge, carbon emissions are likely to climb even higher.

Taking scientific literature as a starting point and assuming there are costs and tradeoffs to high carbon dioxide emissions, this prompts questions about how to best balance the energy dynamics in the metroplex for the maximal net benefit of the population and wider regional economy and environment.

Currently, electric power is the largest contributor to CO₂ emissions in DFW, accounting for approximately 30 percent of total emissions in 2024. Nearly 98 percent of DFW’s power plants run on natural gas. While natural gas burns cleaner per megawatt-hour than coal, its rapid expansion has made it a significant contributor to total CO₂ emissions. Given its significant usage, it is crucial to examine DFW’s natural gas power plants to examine how the existing systems can be improved. One of the most reliable options is point-source carbon capture, which can help reduce CO₂ emissions directly at the source without disrupting the DFW’s growing energy needs.

As other fuels phase out, natural gas has become essential to keeping industrial systems running reliably, making it an important focus for reducing CO₂ emissions strategically. Driven by increasing power needs, direct CO₂ emissions from natural gas in the U.S. electric power sector have risen by nearly 150 percent since 2009, while emissions from coal and petroleum have steadily declined.

In 2023, Texas consumed more natural gas than any other U.S. state, and within Texas, Dallas–Fort Worth produced more CO₂ from natural gas than any other metropolitan area.

Electricity in DFW is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates as an independent power grid covering almost the entirety of the state. ERCOT generates around 10 percent more electricity from natural gas than the national average, and in a metropolitan area like DFW, with an even denser cluster of natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants, that percentage may be even higher. NGCC plants are essential to powering homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure across the DFW area. Their efficiency and scale make them imperative to the success of Texas’s energy system, and therefore a strategy for reducing CO₂ emissions cannot simply remove NGCC plants.

This is where Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies come in. Rather than requiring a shift away from natural gas, CCUS enables stakeholders to work with existing infrastructure by capturing carbon directly at the source. That means emissions can be significantly reduced without interrupting the vital energy supply that keeps DFW running. Because DFW has a deep reliance on NGCC power, CCUS allows us to keep the energy output we rely on while cutting carbon emissions at their source in an efficient way.

While DFW is already home to some carbon capture projects, primarily in natural gas processing sites, these aren’t the region’s biggest CO₂ emitters. Natural gas power generation is DFW’s largest source of CO₂ emissions, responsible for nearly 90 percent of the metro’s total in 2023. Despite this, seemingly none currently use amine-based post-combustion capture, an innovative technology for capturing CO₂ directly from power plant exhaust. It works by scrubbing CO₂ from the flue gas using an amine-rich solvent, then reheating the solution to release the CO₂ and recycle the solvent. This technology can reduce emissions by approximately 95-99 percent and is designed to be retrofitted onto existing infrastructure, saving a significant amount of time and resources. However, operating a post combustion capture system is energy intensive, meaning that the overall efficiency is reduced. Amine scrubbing can increase the energy demand of an NGCC power plant by 15 to 30 percent. For an innovative pre combustion carbon capture process with even more direct economic and infrastructure benefits, look here.

Investing in CCUS efforts in the DFW area offers substantial economic benefits. Cities that consistently fail to meet EPA air quality standards may face serious financial consequences. For DFW, persistent air quality issues could result in $45 million in annual penalties by 2027 if significant improvements aren’t made – in addition to potential healthcare and quality of life expenses incurred by the population. Rather than paying costly fines with local taxpayer money, those funds could be redirected toward projects like CCUS that improve air quality and generate economic returns.

At the same time, CCUS projects are projected to create around 7,500 full-time jobs across just four upcoming projects in Texas. Launching similar efforts in DFW would not only support cleaner air but also support DFW’s rapid economic growth and job market expansion.

Expanding CCUS technologies in DFW offers a realistic path to reduce the impacts of CO₂ without dismantling the systems we depend on. As long as natural gas remains essential to powering homes, infrastructure, and industry, its emissions will remain an unavoidable byproduct. Rather than working against that reality, carbon capture allows us to work with it, preserving energy reliability while cutting emissions at the source. In doing so, DFW can pursue climate goals in a way that benefits both the environment and the community.

Written by Joyce Ogola, Public Policy Intern