Carbon Capture Coalition Statement on Passage of the Fiscal Year 2024 Spending Package

The following statement on the passage of the fiscal year (FY) 2024 federal spending package may be attributed to Madelyn Morrison, Director of Government Affairs for the Carbon Capture Coalition:  

“This has been a challenging year for progress on federal appropriations. We are encouraged to see a final package to fund essential climate and energy programs across government finally on its way to enactment.  

“Annual appropriations for core carbon management programs across government agencies represent a fundamental source of federal support for the research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of these technologies. We are disappointed to see that recent incremental gains made in foundational carbon management programs funded under the Department of Energy (DOE) have decreased by $32 million this funding cycle. Annual federal funding is critical for realizing necessary economies of scale for the full value chain of carbon management technologies (carbon capture, removal, reuse, transport, and storage) which are necessary to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change while providing vital economic and health benefits to local communities and workers.  

“To be clear, decreased funding for critical RD&D programs like carbon capture and carbon transport and storage at DOE ultimately translates into a slower pace of deployment of these climate-essential technologies, threatening their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Recent federal policy advances have been transformational in ensuring these technologies can scale at the pace required to meet the nation’s climate ambitions. However, these policies must be paired with robust, sustained annual funding for deployment-crucial carbon management programs administered by DOE. Without robust annual appropriations, the portfolio of supportive policies aimed at reducing costs and encouraging innovation enacted under the 117th Congress are significantly less effective, imperiling continued progress in meeting climate and economic development goals. 

“Since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, both of which carried significant federal policy support to incentivize the economywide deployment of carbon management technologies, the total number of announced carbon management projects underway across the nation has continued to rise. While we are exceptionally grateful for the strong, bipartisan support from Congress for carbon management technologies these past several years, annual funding levels for these technologies must keep pace with the growing need and interest in deploying carbon management across the economy. 

“Though the funding package included a disappointing decrease in funding for the core carbon management programs at DOE, there were several bright spots included in the final bill. These include $5 million in sustained funding for the mission-critical Class VI injection wells at the Underground Injection Control program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as $1.2 million in funding to support education and training for Class VI program staff. This funding will be vital to ensure adequate permitting capacity at the federal and state levels necessary for the buildout of safe and permanent carbon management storage. In addition, the package included one of the Coalition’s top appropriations requests to fully fund the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) competitive purchasing pilot program, authorized under the FY23 omnibus, at $20 million. This funding sends a strong signal to the private sector to commercialize CDR solutions, in turn accelerating cost reductions and catalyzing innovation. 

“Carbon management technologies will not single-handedly solve the climate crisis—however, it is increasingly clear that we must utilize every tool at hand to meet the urgency of the moment while sustaining domestic energy production and protecting and creating jobs American families depend upon. The task ahead requires us to heed the continued and increasing alarms being sounded by the world’s scientific community and provide the necessary policy support —including robust annual funding for important RD&D functions— to ensure carbon management technologies can achieve their full greenhouse gas emissions reduction potential. As we look ahead to the next annual funding cycle, the Coalition will continue to work with Members of Congress on a bipartisan basis to restore and build upon the important federal investments needed to realize the economywide deployment of carbon management technologies.” 

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The Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, and conservation, and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economywide, commercial-scale deployment of carbon management technologies. This includes carbon capture, removal, transport, reuse, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air. Members of the Coalition work together to advocate for the full portfolio of policies required to commercialize a domestic carbon management sector and inform policymakers as well as stakeholders on the essential role this suite of technologies must play in achieving these shared objectives.