Carbon Management Legislative Priorities for the 117th Congress

The Carbon Capture Coalition has published a fact sheet on the Coalition’s Carbon Management Legislative Priorities for the 117th Congress, which builds off recommendations contained within the Coalition’s consensus-based Federal Policy Blueprint. Groundbreaking provisions to scale deployment of carbon capture, removal, utilization and associated CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure included in bipartisan bills before the 117th Congress are essential to putting America’s energy, industrial and manufacturing sectors on track to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. 

This portfolio of complementary policies could deliver an estimated 13-fold scale-up of carbon management capacity and between 210 to 250 million metric tons in annual emissions reductions by 2035. There is the potential to create tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of high-wage jobs from carbon capture and direct air capture deployment, respectively, and generate hundreds of billions in investment if these technologies are deployed at levels needed to meet net-zero targets.  

While 45Q is the cornerstone federal policy to enable economywide deployment, we must now build upon this foundation to provide investment certainty and drive greater private investment in carbon management projects.  Needed enhancements to 45Q include:  

• Providing a direct pay option for carbon management project developers,  

• Extend the commence construction window by an additional ten years, to the end of 2035,  
• Enhance credit values across carbon management technologies to drive early deployment,  
• Eliminate annual carbon capture thresholds, and,  
• Enact the Storing CO₂ and Lowering Emissions (SCALE) Act to enable deployment of CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure by midcentury. 

Additionally, providing appropriations at the level authorized under the 2020 Energy Act and the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will ensure that the carbon management industry can scale over the next decade to meet net-zero emissions targets.  These policy priorities are contained in multiple bills in the 117th Congress, as well as the Administration’s American Jobs Plan and the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684).  

To read more about the Coalition’s Legislative Priorities for the 117th Congress click here.