White House Announces New Actions Across Administration to Advance Industrial Decarbonization and Carbon Management Efforts

The Carbon Capture Coalition released the following statement today regarding the Biden Administration’s announcement of new actions to advance industrial decarbonization efforts across multiple agencies, including carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization and storage. This statement may be attributed to Jessie Stolark, Policy and Member Relations Manager for the Carbon Capture Coalition:

“Today’s announcements by the Biden Administration to advance industrial decarbonization initiatives across federal programs, reiterates the broad, bipartisan support for the economywide deployment of carbon management technologies and further underscores President Biden’s commitment to utilizing carbon management as a critical tool to decarbonize heavy industry and manufacturing.  

“The industrial and manufacturing sectors provide family sustaining, high-wage jobs, and form the backbone of many regional economies. At the same time, industry and manufacturing are responsible for nearly a third of domestic greenhouse gas emissions and are considered especially hard to decarbonize. Deploying technologies across the entire carbon management value chain—including carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization and storage, as well as low-carbon hydrogen produced with carbon capture—in these hard-to-abate sectors will be essential to reaching midcentury climate goals, while preserving and expanding a high-wage jobs base that families and communities depend upon.

“The interim ‘Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration Guidance’ issued today by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and mandated by the 2020-enacted bipartisan Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act (USE IT Act) echoes recommendations made by the Carbon Capture Coalition to ensure carbon management projects fulfill their full emissions reduction potential in a responsible way while providing environmental and jobs benefits for affected communities.

“Most recently, the Coalition expressed support to CEQ for the formation of the regional carbon management permitting task forces, which will focus on improving the performance of the permitting process, as directed by the USE IT Act. With today’s interim guidance, the Coalition looks forward to providing additional comments to CEQ on areas of mutual interest, including additional transparency efforts around the reporting of secure geologic storage of CO2 to maintain public and policymaker confidence in the 45Q tax credit, interagency air quality studies to better understand the impact of carbon capture retrofits and direct air capture projects on air quality, and proper implementation of the increased funding for Class VI well permitting programs at the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Today’s announcement reiterates the fundamental fact that federal investment in industrial decarbonization is key to American prosperity and to putting domestic industry firmly on the path toward deep emissions reductions, retaining and creating high-wage jobs, and continued technology leadership and economic competitiveness. With the recent enactment of the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, the federal government must now work with states and partners to responsibly implement the $12.1 billion for carbon management programs and $8 billion for clean hydrogen hubs at the Department of Energy and at the EPA. The Coalition’s more than 90 labor, industry, conservation and environmental members will work with the Administration and Congress on a bipartisan basis to ensure proper implementation of both the IIJA and the USE IT Act.

“While today’s announcements are a significant step in the right direction toward economywide deployment of carbon management technologies, failure to enact a comprehensive carbon management agenda including vital enhancements to the federal Section 45Q tax credit contained in pending budget reconciliation legislation, imperils the Biden Administration’s goals of achieving net-zero emissions in the power sector by 2035 and broader industrial decarbonization by midcentury. Congress now has the opportunity to enact the most comprehensive and meaningful climate and energy policy in U.S. history, ensuring economywide deployment of carbon capture, direct air capture, and carbon utilization technologies and associated CO2 transport and storage infrastructure at climate scale.”

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The Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of nearly 90 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 management 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.