On March 25, 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) selected Heidelberg Material’s cement plant in Mitchell, IN as a potential recipient of up to $500 million in grants to construct and operate an integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage system to address on-site emissions at its cement facility. The company claims that this project will capture about 95% of the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions. As part of the requirement for receiving public funding to install this technology, the facility must negotiate a set of commitments with the local community.
On August 14, 2024, the Department of Energy made $300,000 of funding available for the company to conduct community engagements, apply for permits, and other planning activities over the next 12 to 18 months. At the end of this period, the Department of Energy will evaluate Heidelberg’s development of a community benefits plan and determine whether the company would be eligible to receive another share of the total grant.
Community Benefits Plan from Heidelberg Materials
In its public briefing in April 2024 and fact sheet published in August 2024, Heidelberg Materials promised it would pursue a legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement or a Good Neighbor Agreement with the community around its facility in Mitchell. The company also highlighted its intention to monitor air pollutants and make the data available to local community members. This could be a major opportunity for a city with higher than the national average ambient particulate matter levels to see improvements in local air quality.
These are promising signals and complement additional commitments around local hiring and contracting with particular focus on small and disadvantaged businesses in the community. These mirror public commitments Heidelberg Materials already made when it successfully applied for engineering study funding in August 2022 and May 2023. However, the full details of the community benefits plan from these previous and current funding rounds are not public.
Heidelberg Materials plans to host two open forums with the community around Mitchell in the next 12 to 18 months to incorporate feedback into their community benefits plan. It also plans to lean heavily on an existing “Community Advisory Panel” which currently includes groups like the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council, Mitchell City Council, Greater Mitchell Chamber of Commerce, Spring Mill State Park, and other entities. The most recent fact sheet on the project published on August 14, 2024 noted that Heidelberg Materials would solicit feedback from the community to evaluate making updates to the Community Advisory Panel membership.
Unaddressed concerns
DOE intends for Heidelberg to use the grant to pilot a technology that has not yet proven to be effective. Heidelberg Materials admits that there are unknowns regarding the feasibility of carbon capture and storage for cement decarbonization. A carbon capture system could potentially reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and local pollutants, though without scrutiny, the technology could also prolong or even increase certain emissions. Part of the purpose of DOE investing in this project is to test the technological success–or failure–of carbon capture for cement production, and Heidelberg Materials has an opportunity to prove that this technology can be used while mitigating local concerns.
Beyond questions on technological feasibility and whether the company is doing enough to reduce emissions before they are released, there are many concerns from the community that deserve the company’s attention.
At DOE’s April 2024 public briefing individuals concerned about the project asked the company if it would support equipping and training community members to independently monitor pollution levels, given concerns about past pollution permit violations, but the company did not commit to do so during the briefing. Regional briefing listeners also raised concerns about community safety related to the project. The community benefits process will be an important opportunity for Heidleberg to hear and address community concerns such as these. Local stakeholders can also seek to better understand or influence company decisions, like that to use polluting gas turbines rather than clean electricity, to power the carbon capture system, or how the company plans to address the impacts of past pollution.
Heidelberg Materials is pioneering a technology to decarbonize cement–the world’s most widely used construction material–that could be part of the global solution to climate change. As the company moves into the next stage of the IDP process, it has an opportunity to transparently engage the community on the project’s effects and receive input from local stakeholders on how to maximize benefits, like local pollution reductions.
For more information, visit DOE’s Industrial Demonstrations Program page. Summary of the Heidelberg Materials’ project proposal can be found here with slides from regionally-focused briefings from the DOE. Additionally, you can find a brief fact sheet on the project here and a summary of the Community Benefits Commitments negotiated between Heidelberg Materials and the Department of Energy.