Oregon
Oregon geologist looks to volcanic rock to store carbon dioxide as tool to fight climate change • Oregon Capital Chronicle
Layers of volcanic rock in eastern Oregon, the Willamette Valley and the Columbia Basin have created fertile soil for farming and ranching, but in the future it could provide fruitful ground for a whole other industry designed to fight climate change.
Oregon’s state geologist is pitching a novel idea of using the region’s rocky basalt layer – born of lava that flowed millions of years ago from cracks in the Earth’s crust – to be a bank for storing planet-warming carbon dioxide.
Ruarri Day-Stirrat, state geologist and executive director of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, discussed the potential for geologic carbon sequestration at a State Land Board meeting in Salem last month, and will seek funding to begin investigating potential sites in eastern Oregon. It involves using machines to capture carbon dioxide from the air or to capture it directly from a source like a big livestock operation or a factory, turning it into a solid mineral and storing it in rocky layers deep in the earth. The strategy is still a very new one, and so far not cost-effective or scalable in the fight against climate change. But places like Oregon, Washington and Iceland that have lots of volcanic rock are unique in their potential to store carbon deep underground.
“At the moment, it’s definitely in that seed idea,” Day-Stirrat told the Capital Chronicle. “We want to drill a stratigraphic test well to understand whether it’s even plausible – not even feasible – but plausible.”
At the encouragement of the State Land Board – which includes Gov. Tina Kotek, Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade and state Treasurer Tobias Read – he’ll present the idea to the state Legislature in January and start to raise funding.
There’s potential to store more than 14,000 megatons of carbon dioxide in the basalt beneath Oregon and Washington, according to a 2013 U.S. Geological Survey study. That’s equivalent to more than 200 years worth of carbon dioxide emissions from Oregonians and Oregon industry. In eastern Oregon, quite a bit of that rocky layer is deep beneath land owned by the state, which is where Day-Stirrat sees the greatest potential for development.
But it’s expensive to drill and develop a project, and could be counterintuitive to the mission of reducing pollution and slowing climate change if energy must be used to capture the carbon dioxide, mineralize it and to inject it into the ground. Modeling from the En-ROADS simulator developed by the nonprofit Climate Interactive and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that direct carbon capture and storage is not the most effective way to spend money in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it would be far more effective in the next 75 years to spend money to decarbonize the energy sector and to tax polluters.
“We should be investigating a lot of different solutions. And yes, each project has more or less cost. And at the moment, we’re probably doing all the cheap ones, and they’re cheap for a reason,” Day-Stirrat said.
Northwest projects
Some direct air capture and geologic carbon storage projects are already underway. In the Dalles, Google is building its own $20 million direct carbon capture facility. The University of Wyoming is also running a test project near Hermiston, with more than $10 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to eventually capture carbon dioxide emissions from a natural gas plant, mineralize them and inject them into underground basalt.
In those facilities, a chemical filter grabs or locks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and holds onto it until it is isolated, turned to a solid and then injected into the earth.
Test projects are also happening in Washington, and a consortium that includes the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based climate nonprofit, and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries is trying to create a direct carbon capture and storage hub in the Northwest.
To initiate a project in eastern Oregon, Day-Stirrat said his agency needs to be able to drill more than 3,500 feet beneath the ground to see how deep the water table is, where water flow zones are and if there are any plausible areas to store mineralized carbon and if it’s possible to get the mineralized carbon that deep. Standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency do not allow any geologic carbon sequestration to happen in an area where water could be compromised, Day-Stirrat said.
“Direct air capture still has a ways to go. But there’s a lot of research and development money going into understanding the technology and what the scale up globally could look like,” he said.
Day-Stirrat, 45, said he expects in his lifetime to see it used as a tool for reducing emissions and slowing the worst outcomes of climate change.
“I’d be disappointed if it doesn’t,” he said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The Oregon Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 7, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Pick 4 numbers from June 7 drawing
1PM: 8-1-4-9
4PM: 7-1-2-5
7PM: 9-0-5-8
10PM: 8-4-9-5
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Oregon Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 7:59 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 7:59 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 4: 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily.
- Win for Life: 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Megabucks: 7:29 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Oregon editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Sometimes the next visit is just the best visit.
That was the case for four-star edge rusher K.J. Green, who visited the Oregon Ducks last weekend before making a trip to Baton Rouge to visit LSU this weekend. Green left Eugene with a positive visit, and the Ducks had every reason to feel like a contender and potentially a frontrunner in the race.
However, Green’s trip to LSU went so well that the pass rusher from Stone Mountain, Georgia, decided to lock in his commitment with the Tigers. Green wasn’t scheduled to commit until August 8, and it appeared that Green would take all of his visits before making a decision, so the early commitment was a surprise.
Green chose LSU over Oregon, South Carolina and Georgia. He is the No. 48 player and No. 8 edge rusher in the country, per the Rivals Industry Ranking. During his junior season in high school, Green racked up 129 tackles, 40 for a loss, 18 sacks and four forced fumbles. He was named a MaxPreps Junior All-American and was the Region 5-AAA Defensive Player of the Year.
Standing at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Green profiles very similarly to Nasir Wyatt, who is expected to contribute in a big way for the Ducks this season. Oregon has the No. 9 class in the nation, per Rivals, which includes top-100 player and edge rusher Rashad Streets.
Missing out on Green is a tough loss for the Ducks, but the program could walk away from this weekend’s round of official visits with another edge rusher in tow. Keep an eye on three-star Achilles Reyna to potentially commit to the Ducks soon.
Contact/Follow @Ducks_Wire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinions.
The winning formula for Texas baseball against Oregon in the opening game of the Austin Super Regional seemed relatively simple: perform on the mound, create traffic on the bases and control the game. If the Longhorns could avoid a slow start and Dylan Volantis kept sharp, they could trust the Ducks’ aggressive approach at the plate would eventually work against them.
Well, Texas did that. More or less.
Volantis turned in one of the more unusual starts of his season, setting a career high in wild pitches while walking four and allowing eight hits. But he also struck out 10 batters and stranded 10 Oregon runners through 5 1/3 innings.
That proved to be more than enough for the Longhorns to take advantage of an Oregon pitching staff that simply could not stop handing out free passes.
Texas effectively outlasted the Ducks on Saturday night, scoring 11 runs on just eight hits to claim Game 1 of the Austin Super Regional and move one win away from its first College World Series berth since 2022.
“I think both teams had one opportunity, and the difference in the game was we got some pitches up and put some balls in play to score runners with third base and less than two outs, and they didn’t,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “You can give credit to Dylan mainly for that, making pitches when he had to make them.”
Texas Delivers While Oregon Repeatedly Comes Up Empty
While Volantis did not have his sharpest outing of the season, he delivered when it mattered most.
Oregon put runners on base in every inning Volantis pitched and stranded 10 runners through the first five frames. The sophomore left-hander battled command issues, uncorked a career-high number of wild pitches and frequently worked in and out of trouble. Yet time and time again, he escaped.
The Ducks threatened in the first inning, putting runners on the corners before Volantis struck out Brayden Jaksa to escape the jam. It was not the last time Oregon would leave runners in scoring position, as the Ducks finished the night 0-for-14 with RISP.
And despite giving Volantis trouble, Oregon repeatedly came away empty-handed.
Texas could not say the same.
The Longhorns got things going in the first inning, when Adrian Rodriguez ripped a two-run double into the left-center gap to score both Aiden Robbins and Anthony Pack Jr. to give the Longhorns an early lead. One inning later, Casey Borba launched an opposite-field home run — his 18th of the year — before Dariyan Pendergrass scored on a Robbins sacrifice fly after drawing a walk and stealing two bases.
And while Texas took advantage of every scoring opportunity, Oregon continuously left the door open.
With the bases loaded and one out in the third inning, Volantis once again slammed the door on Oregon’s scoring chance by striking out Jaksa and inducing a groundout to end the inning. In the fourth, Oregon put runners on second and third with nobody out before Volantis struck out the next two batters and recorded another groundout to complete the escape act.
After Volantis exited in the sixth with the bases loaded and one out, Thomas Burns struck out his first batter before issuing back-to-back two-out walks that cut the Texas lead to 8-2. But Luke Harrison, an expected Game 2 starter, entered and struck out Blake Mabeus to strand the bases loaded.
“Super cool to see Luke Harrison come into that situation and just do the job,” Volantis said. “He’s the most trustworthy guy you could ask for; whatever you ask of him, he’s going to do it.”
In the bottom half of the inning, Rodriguez delivered another RBI on a sacrifice fly before Ethan Mendoza launched a two-run homer to left-center field. Rodriguez finished the night with a career-high five RBI.
Harrison worked another scoreless inning before Brody Walls closed out the final two frames, allowing just one run on a solo homer in the eighth.
The Longhorns and Ducks will meet again Sunday night, with Texas now just one win away from its first Men’s College World Series berth since 2022.
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