![]() ![]() ![]() Technically, when the gas is injected into wells it should remain trapped if they’re capped properly. The big concern around carbon capture is that it could extend the life of power plants fueled by coal or natural gas, incentivize the construction of new ones, and slow the buildout of clean energy sources.Ĭritics are particularly worried about the tax credits for enhanced oil recovery, which is how most US carbon capture projects to date have put the carbon dioxide to work. It also raises that credit from $50 to $180 for facilities that remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it away permanently, a process known as direct air capture. Specifically, the credit increases from $50 a metric ton to $85 a ton for industrial facilities and power plants that permanently sequester carbon dioxide in deep underground geological reservoirs, according to an analysis by the law firm Gibson Dunn. With those bigger subsidies, companies in certain sectors could break even or even profit from adding the necessary equipment and managing the resulting carbon. Most notably, it increases the so-called 45Q tax credits for projects that capture, remove, and store away carbon. In addition, it could accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage in several ways. The IRA includes hundreds of billions in grants, loans, federal procurements, and tax credits designed to drive research and development efforts, renewable-energy projects, electric-vehicle sales, buildup of a clean-energy manufacturing sector, and more. “It provides opportunities to reduce pollution in communities, to grow and test technologies, to create clean jobs, and to be globally competitive on trade and technology.” The details “The IRA creates an opportunity for the US to do right,” says Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct, a research, investment, and advisory firm focused on carbon removal. (By way of comparison, the nation’s greenhouse-gas emissions totaled about 5.6 billion tons in 2021.) The amount of captured carbon will more than double again by 2035, according to the analysis. At that point, US facilities would trap and sequester some 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, a 13-fold increase over what would likely occur with just the infrastructure bill that passed last year. The Repeat Project, a Princeton-based effort to model the impact of climate policies, estimates that the package will drive about $28 billion in annual capital investments in carbon dioxide transportation and storage projects, as well as power plants with carbon capture equipment, by 2030. (This type of technology, known as carbon removal, is distinct from capturing emissions before they leave a power plant or factory.) It will also provide a big boost to the growing efforts to suck the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere on massive scales, which a growing body of research finds will also be essential for keeping global warming in check. That will be critical for driving down the cost of other carbon capture efforts, making it more affordable to clean up a broader array of products. ![]()
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