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The Obama administration views carbon dioxide as a pollutant that warms the earth, and it imposed new regulations at the beginning of the year to begin to control CO2 emissions. But to Texas oilmen, carbon dioxide is a useful and scarce commodity that is vital to extracting hard-to-reach oil reserves.
In Texas, the nations largest oil-producing state, the demand for CO2 is soaring because carbon dioxide can help squeeze oil out of formations deep underground and new carbon dioxide-producing plants are in the works.
Last month, Texas air-quality regulators approved crucial permits for two coal-fired power plants that will capture their carbon dioxide emissions and sell them for use in nearby oil fields. Also in December, a major new pipeline operated by Denbury Resources of Plano began ferrying carbon dioxide from Mississippi to oil fields near Houston.
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