Lawmakers include CCUS and USE IT Act in End of Year Legislation

Lawmakers include CCUS and USE IT Act in End of Year Legislation

Lawmakers have released a bipartisan energy bill, the first major overhaul of the nation's energy policies in over a decade. The bill encourages the innovation and adoption of advanced coal technologies. Please find the final energy and environmental policy legislation here as part of the omnibus appropriations package. 

The bill provides funding to establish a carbon capture technology program for the development of transformational technologies that will significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, cost, emission reductions and environmental performance of coal and natural gas use, including in manufacturing and industrial facilities. 

It requires that not later than two years after date of enactment, the Secretary of Energy is to award grants to one or more entities for the operation of one or more carbon capture test centers to advance research, development, demonstration and commercial application of carbon capture technologies; support large-scale pilot projects and demonstration projects and test carbon capture technologies; and develop front-end engineering design and economic analysis. It requires the Secretary to establish a two-year demonstration program in each of the two major coal producing regions of the U.S. for purposes of partnering with private institutions in coal mining regions to accelerate commercial deployment of coal-carbon products.

The Secretary must establish a program for RD&D for carbon storage in coordination with relevant federal agencies to assess capacity of geologic storage in the US. Not later than one year after date of enactment, the bill requires the Secretary to establish a crosscutting industrial emissions reduction technology development program of RD&D and commercial application to advance innovative technologies 

In addition, lawmakers agreed to bipartisan carbon capture utilization and direct air capture legislation, the S. 383, the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) Act. This legislation directs DOE to support carbon utilization and direct air capture research, directs the President’s Council for Environmental Quality to establish guidance to assist developers of CCUS projects and CO2 pipelines including applying permit streamlining, and extends and expands the 45Q tax credit to provide certainty to utilities and other industrial sources and incentivize the build-out of CCUS projects. NMA submitted a letter of support for the legislation earlier this Congress.

Finally, the omnibus appropriations package also includes a two year extension of the 45Q tax credit through 2025 promoting carbon sequestration.

Please contact Virginia Gum at (202) 463-2605 or vgum@nma.org for additional information.