Senate Advances Bipartisan Infrastructure Package with Broad Support from Both Sides of the Aisle

The following statement can be attributed to Brad Crabtree, Director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, in response to the Senate’s advancement of the bipartisan infrastructure package: 

“The Carbon Capture Coalition applauds members of the U.S. Senate for their work to advance the bipartisan infrastructure package by a vote of 69-30 on Tuesday. The package, which includes groundbreaking provisions to scale deployment of carbon capture, removal, utilization and associated CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, showcases Congress’s renewed commitment to investing in carbon management technologies in an effort to position our nation’s industrial, energy and manufacturing sectors for global leadership in achieving net-zero emissions by midcentury, while ensuring the long-term competitiveness of key domestic industries and sustaining the high-wage jobs base and communities that depend on them. 

“The broadly supported carbon management policies included in this package are echoed not only in bipartisan legislation, but they are also consistent with recommendations in the Biden Administration’s American Jobs Plan. Most notably, the package features top Coalition demonstration and deployment priorities, including the widely supported SCALE Act in its entirety to help finance the buildout of CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, as well as funding for critical 2020 Energy Act authorizations to support commercial-scale demonstrations and engineering studies for carbon capture, direct air capture and carbon utilization technologies and for establishing regional hydrogen and direct air capture hubs. 

“Senate passage of the package comes days after more than 170 companies, unions, conservation and environmental groups, and other organizations from across the nation called on congressional leadership, in an open letter, to prioritize a targeted suite of bipartisan carbon management policies as part of any forthcoming legislative package. Enactment of the bipartisan infrastructure provisions and key complementary tax measures outlined in the letter could deliver economywide deployment resulting in an estimated 13-fold increase in carbon management capacity and annual emissions reductions of 210-250 million metric tons by 2035, spurring continued innovation and improved performance, while driving down costs and preserving and creating high-wage jobs that families and communities across the nation depend upon.

“The Coalition looks forward to the House taking action on this pivotal legislation and continuing to work with members of Congress across the political spectrum to implement policies to scale deployment of carbon management technologies at the level necessary to put our nation’s economy on a path to net-zero emissions and fulfill our climate obligations.”

-###- 

The Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 80 businesses and organizations building federal policy support for economywide deployment of carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization, and storage. Our mission is to reduce carbon emissions to meet midcentury climate goals, foster domestic energy and industrial production, and support a high-wage jobs base through the adoption of carbon capture technologies. Convened by the Great Plains Institute, Coalition membership includes industry, energy, and technology companies; energy and industrial labor unions; and conservation, environmental, and energy policy organizations.