![]() With the infrastructure bill passed, Senate Democrats have turned their attention to a budget reconciliation package that could provide even more support for carbon capture and storage. Please take a look at the new openings in our newsroom. “On the flip side, carbon capture has a mixed record, is not widely deployed anywhere, and if it holds promise, it holds promise in the next decade or the next 20 or 30 or 40 years.” “We know today that renewable energy is ready to be deployed, it works, it helps decarbonize the energy sector,” said Josh Axelrod, a senior advocate in the nature program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Many environmental advocates argue that the massive government support would be better spent on proven climate solutions like wind and solar energy, which receive far less in direct funding under the infrastructure bill. Just a single bill-the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that passed the Senate last week and is now headed to the House of Representatives- includes more than $12 billion in direct support for carbon capture, and could unlock billions more through other programs, according to the recent drafts. These policies have fast-tracked environmental reviews and allocated billions in federal funding for research and development of carbon capture and storage, or CCS, technologies that pull carbon dioxide out of smokestacks or directly from the air before storing it underground. With all that new support, American companies could be capturing around 100 million tons of carbon dioxide a year within a decade, more than 10 times the amount currently sequestered for tackling climate change each year, according to Boston-based environmental organization Clean Air Task Force.Over the last year, energy companies, electrical utilities and other industrial sectors have been quietly pushing through a suite of policies to support a technology that stands to yield tens of billions of dollars for corporate polluters, but may do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And the credits will be paid directly to the operator, providing a clear source of revenue even for relatively small installations. Direct air capture qualifies for tax credits worth as much as $180 per ton for projects that trap as little as 1,000 tons of CO2 per year. Industrial projects like factories that produce steel or cement, need to capture 12,500 tons or more of CO2 a year to qualify, down from 100,000 tons a year under the previous system. Under the new regime, the US government will offer a tax credit of $85 for every metric ton of carbon emissions captured from a smokestack and stored - up 70% from current levels. And while the US already had a tax credit to support carbon capture, it was too paltry to attract much interest from industry and only available to larger operators. One of its biggest drawbacks has been the cost. ![]() The technology either involves collecting carbon dioxide emitted by a factory, a method that’s been around for decades, or taking it directly from the air and then storing it underground. Among them will be startups developing more efficient ways to capture and store carbon, which is going to be crucial to meeting global climate goals. The Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress this month will boost a host of clean technologies. US companies that cut carbon emissions could qualify for subsidies on even the smallest projects under new climate legislation, unleashing a potentially unprecedented wave of investment in green technologies. Sign up to receive the Bloomberg Green newsletter in your inbox. ![]()
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