Carbon Capture Coalition Announces New Executive Director

Washington, D.C. (January 30, 2023) – The Carbon Capture Coalition today announced that Jessie Stolark has been hired as the executive director of the Coalition. Stolark, who is currently the Public Policy and Member Relations Manager, succeeds Brad Crabtree, who was appointed Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy in 2022.

Stolark joined the Coalition in November 2019 and worked closely with former Staff Director Brad Crabtree and the Coalition staff team which now includes Government Affairs Manager Madelyn Morrison and Coordinator Leo Duke. Stolark assumes the new position today and will report to Patrice Lahlum, Interim Vice President for Carbon Management at Great Plains Institute, which convenes the Coalition.

“I am honored to be named the executive director for this diverse and dynamic bipartisan Coalition as we collectively roll up our sleeves and get to work on deploying carbon management technologies to enable meeting midcentury climate goals. Over the past several years, I have had the pleasure of working closely with colleagues and our membership in advocating, enacting and now implementing the policy framework for carbon management technologies that was realized in the 117th Congress, Stolark said, noting that during her tenure with the Coalition, membership has become even more diverse – reflecting the growing number of sectors and supportive stakeholders that view deployment of carbon management as absolutely critical for realizing midcentury climate goals.

“Now thanks to this portfolio of policies, the carbon management industry stands poised to deliver on significant emissions reductions while strengthening our industrial and manufacturing sectors as well as protecting family sustaining jobs. Looking forward, the Coalition will continue to play a key role in enacting the next generation of supportive policies for these key climate technologies. Equally important is the Coalition’s role in ensuring that these projects deliver on emissions reductions while also providing economic and environmental benefits local communities,” Stolark said.

Jessie joined the Coalition in 2019 from Third Way, where she had been a Policy Advisor managing the Climate and Energy Program’s carbon capture and industrial decarbonization portfolio. In that role, she provided advice and counsel on carbon capture policy and served as the organization’s principal liaison to the Carbon Capture Coalition. Previously, Jessie served as a Policy Associate at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. She holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Geosciences from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Environmental Science from Bryn Mawr College.

In her new role, Jessie will lead and work alongside the Coalition team of staff and consultants, advisory governance board, and industry, NGO and labor members to fulfill our mission of fostering economywide deployment of carbon management— which includes carbon capture, removal, transport, use and storage—to meet midcentury climate goals, foster domestic energy and industrial production, support and expand a high-wage jobs base and improve the environmental health of and economic benefits to affected communities.  

“Jessie’s hiring comes at a time when carbon management is increasingly a central piece of the climate solution.  As Great Plains Institute takes an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to responsibly scaling the carbon management sector, I can think of no one better to lead the important work of the Coalition as we look towards 2030 deployment goals. Jessie, alongside Coalition staff and members will continue to play a central role in building federal policy support for the full suite of carbon management technologies and ensuring the next generation of enabling policy is in place,” Lahlum said.

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The Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, 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, utilization, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air. Economywide adoption of carbon management technologies are critical to achieving net zero emissions to meet midcentury climate goals, strengthening and decarbonizing domestic energy, industrial production and manufacturing, and, retaining and expanding a high-wage jobs base. 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.