Blog Post: Blueprint Outlines Comprehensive Federal Policy Agenda Promoting Economywide Carbon Capture Deployment

Last month, the Carbon Capture Coalition released a first-ever national policy blueprint outlining a comprehensive set of policy priorities to promote economywide deployment of carbon capture technologies.

The blueprint – which is meant to serve as a federal policy roadmap for carbon capture – provides specific, consensus recommendations for federal action arranged in four complementary areas:

• Investment certainty;
• Technology deployment and cost reductions;
• Project finance and feasibility; and
• Infrastructure deployment.

The categories and accompanying recommendations are meant to enhance and build on the reformed federal Section 45Q tax credit, which is the foundational policy for carbon capture in the U.S. The Coalition has identified additional federal policies that will be needed to ensure deployment of a critical mass of commercial-scale projects economywide by 2030 in order to scale up carbon capture technologies to meet midcentury carbon emission reduction goals.

The Coalition’s strategic vision for future policy action encompasses carbon capture, transport, utilization, removal and storage and includes the following priorities:

• Ensuring effective implementation of 45Q by the U.S. Treasury to provide the investment certainty and business model flexibility intended by Congress;
• Providing additional federal incentives to complement, expand and build upon 45Q in financing projects;
• Incorporating carbon capture into broader national infrastructure policy; and
• Expanding, retooling and prioritizing federal funding for research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) of next-generation technologies and practices.

We know from the success of wind and solar that a full portfolio of federal and state policies is needed to foster investment, innovation and cost reductions on the scale required to drive low and zero-carbon energy technologies into the marketplace. Carbon capture is no different, and a comprehensive suite of policy tools and incentives will be needed to achieve the full potential of carbon capture to reduce our nation’s carbon emissions, support domestic energy and industrial production, and protect and create high-wage jobs.

The U.S. is well-poised to sustain its global leadership in carbon capture commercialization and deployment. Implementing the policy agenda outlined in the Coalition’s federal blueprint will expand on recent bipartisan congressional passage of the 45Q tax credit and help ensure that we continue to lead the way.

Click here to download a copy of the Policy Blueprint.