Here’s a great overview of the USE IT Act (the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act) that we talked about last week. It was introduced by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), John Barrasso (R-WY), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to build off of the 45Q tax credits and provide the CCUS space with the support it needs to grow.
As mentioned in the article, it hopes to accomplish this goal by creating:
1.) Funding for research on carbon capture, use, and storage, under the Clean Air Act. This would include specific funding for direct air capture, technology that would pull carbon dioxide from the air.
2.) A competition to promote technology development in the private sector. Prizes would be awarded to tech proven to capture 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air at a cost under $200 per ton. (It’s worth noting that the target sum for direct air capture is a lot higher than for capturing emissions from sources like power plants. That’s because the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air is less than 1/100th of that in, say, the exhaust of a coal power plant.)
3.) A board of experts to oversee carbon capture projects and provide technical support to states looking to use the technology.
4.) A way to promote the development of carbon dioxide pipelines, which can carry the captured emissions from the source to a place they can be safely buried.
If this is passed, it would be a major step forward and provide the necessary infrastructure for CCUS technologies to succeed.
This is another piece by Akshat Rathi, who has done a fantastic job reviewing the CCUS world through a series of pieces that cover everything from breakthroughs in technology to government legislation.