EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/4/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Bloomberg: Manchin’s Pipeline Could Be the Last of Its Kind, if It Survives
Virginia Mercury: Federal climate deal could force completion of Mountain Valley Pipeline
The Detroit News: PHMSA warns climate change threatens pipelines, citing Michigan example
Food & Water Watch: Carbon Pipeline Companies Spent $92,600 on Lobbying in Iowa This Year
Illinois Times: CO2 pipeline project proceeding
Reuters: Enterprise reports record natural gas pipeline volumes for Q2 2022
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Climate emergency may be dead, but left keeps pushing
Grist: Is the Biden administration fast-tracking a ‘carbon disaster’ in Alaska?
E&E News: Top House Democrat probes oil company earnings
EXTRACTION
Associated Press: UN chief criticizes ‘grotesque greed’ of oil companies
Reuters: Big Oil offers big returns but keeps spending tight
Reuters: U.S. shale producers keep eyes on returns, even as inflation bites
Reuters: Occidental to cut debt and distribute cash, won’t raise oil output
Reuters: Canadian oil producer Strathcona to buy Serafina for C$2.3 bln -sources
OPINION
Carbon Capture Coalition: Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Makes Monumental Enhancements to the Foundational 45Q Tax Credit
PIPELINE NEWS
Bloomberg: Manchin’s Pipeline Could Be the Last of Its Kind, if It Survives
Kellie Lunney and Daniel Moore, 8/4/22
“West Virginia native Mark Jarrell bought 98 acres of green fields and undulating hills overlooking the Greenbrier River about 20 years ago, envisioning a retirement compound of sorts where family and friends could live, camp, and visit,” Bloomberg reports. “...Winding beneath the roughly five acres of his land that offer the most stunning views is part of a 42-inch, 303-mile natural gas pipeline, proposed to run through West Virginia, Virginia, and part of North Carolina. The valley below holds a final test for the eight-year-old Mountain Valley Pipeline project: federal approval to cross the 1,250-foot-wide river, among the widest of hundreds of water bodies the pipeline must still traverse… “MVP could be the last major pipeline constructed on the East Coast and possibly the US, as natural gas faces an uncertain future in the transition to renewable energy. The pipeline is $3 billion over budget with a current price tag over $6 billion, and is somewhere between 50% and 90% complete, depending on whom you talk to. Developers have asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to extend its certificate by another four years — a request the commission will have to answer before the current authorization expires in October. Brandon Barnes, a Bloomberg Intelligence senior litigation analyst, put at 80% the chances of FERC giving the four-year extension, in a Aug. 2 report. If that happens, the coalition behind the pipeline looks to begin operations in the first quarter of 2023… “While the deal may not necessarily speed up permits, its proposed shift of any legal appeals to the D.C. Circuit and away from the Fourth Circuit — which struck down multiple permits — represents a “real boon” to the project, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Expediting Mountain Valley was key to winning Manchin’s support for the climate deal, though the pipeline wasn’t specifically mentioned in draft bill text obtained by Bloomberg… “Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is from the state’s shale-rich northern Panhandle, told Bloomberg “there is just no way” MVP would be the last of its kind. “We don’t know what’s in our future,” as far as energy development, Capito told Bloomberg, recalling the shale boom in 2008. Capito gave a hypothetical example of new natural gas or hydrogen development happening somewhere without a pipeline. “You have to transport it. Pipeline is the way to do it.” “...Members of the Beyond Extreme Energy organization disrupted normally staid commission meetings in Washington. Groups including the Sierra Club and the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights coalition tracked court proceedings and company statements as inching toward what they saw as the inevitable cancellation of the project. In May, activists marched near the pipeline route during the two-week Walk for Appalachia’s Future. “We really believe this is the year it’s make-or-break,” Grace Tuttle, program and development coordinator for the POWHR coalition, which has opposed the pipeline for years, told Bloomberg. “This project is not inevitable. We don’t have to carry bad ideas through just because that’s the status quo. There is so much we are still fighting to save.”
Virginia Mercury: Federal climate deal could force completion of Mountain Valley Pipeline
SARAH VOGELSONG, 8/2/22
“A deal between Democratic congressional leadership and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III over sweeping federal climate legislation could force the completion of Mountain Valley Pipeline, according to a one-page summary of the agreement’s provisions obtained by The Washington Post. The final item on the summary reads: “Complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline,” the Virginia Mercury reports. “Since the surprise 11th-hour deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Manchin resurrected President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda last week, Virginia environmental groups and many landowners in the state’s southwestern region have been waiting uneasily to learn the agreement’s terms… “Lee Williams, director of Green New Deal Virginia and advocacy chair of the Richmond-area Falls of the James chapter of the Sierra Club, reacted to the proposal with dismay. Environmental groups “want everything” that’s in the federal climate bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, she told the Mercury. “We’ve been asking for it for the last decade. Unfortunately, to get Sen. Manchin to vote for it, they literally threw Southwest Virginia under the bus.” Exactly what Democratic leaders promised Manchin, however, remains unclear. Despite the one-page summary that has been released, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) said during a Tuesday teleconference that “there is no connection between voting on the Inflation Reduction Act and then having to vote for the Mountain Valley Pipeline or a permitting bill.” “The deal was (that) in exchange for getting an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act, we will have the opportunity to debate and vote on permitting improvements, but no one’s made commitments about how they’re going to vote, and I’m certainly not going to make a commitment until I see what that bill is,” he said. Valeria Rivadeneira, a spokesperson for Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D), told the Mercury the senator would review the proposal “once the full legislative text is made available.” …“We’re not going to sit by and roll over and let Southwest Virginia be a sacrifice zone,” Williams told the Mercury Tuesday after leading a demonstration in downtown Richmond calling on Biden to declare a climate emergency, one of many organized by activists nationwide. “But we don’t want to blow up the deal. It’s a fine line.”
The Detroit News: PHMSA warns climate change threatens pipelines, citing Michigan example
Carol Thompson, 8/4/22
“The deluge of water gushing through Sanford, Midland and nearby communities was not the only release to follow the failures of a pair of central Michigan dams on May 19, 2020,” The Detroit News reports. “The forceful water scoured and washed away roads, including one that surrounded a 4-inch Consumers Energy Co. steel gas distribution pipeline in Edenville Township. That pipeline was severed because of heavy rain fall, according to reports from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the federal body charged with overseeing the transportation of energy and other hazardous materials. It released 461,304 cubic feet of natural gas, a "significant" event that cost roughly $4 million, according to a PHMSA report. The incident serves as a warning to pipeline operators across the country, PHMSA officials said in June when it issued a notice encouraging owners to shore up their pipelines against increasingly unstable conditions. "Changing weather patterns due to climate change, including increased rainfall and higher temperatures, may impact soil stability in areas that have historically been stable," PHMSA officials wrote in the June 2 bulletin. "These phenomena can pose a threat to the integrity of pipeline facilities if those threats are not identified and mitigated." Mohammad Najafi, director of the Center for Underground Infrastructure Research & Education at the University of Texas at Arlington and founder of the ASCE Journal of Pipeline Systems, agreed with PHMSA's warnings that climate change jeopardizes underground pipelines. "Extreme weather conditions like the fires, the hot weather, the flooding and the soil erosion due to flooding," all exacerbated by a warming climate, threaten to melt plastic pipes and wash away the supportive soil around pipes no matter what material they're made from, he told the News. Roughly 95% of a pipeline's support structure is soil, he told the Times. He cautioned pipeline owners to increase their inspection of pipelines, including going into the field for visual inspections after storms and natural disasters. He also said pipelines should be re-routed away from places likely to experience more erosion, such as the sides of hills, and be inspected more carefully by state and federal authorities.
Food & Water Watch: Carbon Pipeline Companies Spent $92,600 on Lobbying in Iowa This Year
8/3/22
“Carbon pipeline companies Summit, Navigator and Wolf spent a collective $92,600 on lobbying in Iowa’s 2022 state legislative session, according to the state lobbying declaration records released this week,” Food & Water Watch reports. “Specifically, since January 10, 2022, Summit Carbon Solutions spent $36,000, Navigator CO2 Ventures spent $16,600, and Wolf Carbon Solutions spent $40,000. In the 2022 state legislative session, multiple bills to prohibit eminent domain for carbon pipelines failed to make it out of committee, despite 80% of registered Iowa voters opposing eminent domain for carbon pipelines. These carbon pipeline lobbying expenditures far outpace the lobbying expenditures from the Dakota Access Pipeline fight, where Energy Transfer spent between $25-23.1K on state lobbying each year starting in 2015. Additionally, Summit Carbon Solutions is employing the same lobbyists who worked on that controversial pipeline. Food & Water Watch Senior Iowa Organizer Emma Schmit issued the following statement: “The halls of the Iowa legislature are teeming with cushy corporate cronies and their well-heeled Wall Street investors. While Iowans stand in fields and march in streets to hold our public institutions accountable to we the people, pipeline profiteers are greasing the wheels with dirty money. “Let’s get one thing straight — Iowa belongs to the people. Our land belongs to us, and our public institutions must be accountable to us. Carbon pipelines are dangerous and unnecessary, and we don’t want them. They’ve also been massive conflicts of interest for our elected officials from the start. Governor Reynolds must listen to the people, not the money, as we demand she stop carbon pipelines, and prevent eminent domain for private gain.”
Illinois Times: CO2 pipeline project proceeding
Dean Olsen, 8/3/22
“The clock is ticking on a Texas-based company's plans to build a multi-state pipeline carrying pressurized, liquified carbon dioxide across 250 miles of central Illinois – including Sangamon County south of Springfield – to sequestration fields in Christian County,” the Illinois TImes reports. “...Though met with significant skepticism from environmental groups, company officials also say the pipeline would operate safely, despite the 2020 accidental rupture of Denbury Inc.'s CO pipeline in Satartia, Mississippi, that hospitalized almost 50 people and forced 300 residents to evacuate… “But critics of the proposal say it would pose risks to the health and safety of residents along the pipeline, permanently damage valuable croplands, create unfunded burdens for county and municipal governments, stress rural emergency medical service systems, and provide questionable benefits to the environment. "We're proceeding with something that's never been done before at this scale in the United States," Pam Richart, co-director of the Eco-Justice Coalition, based in Champaign, told the Times. "In Sangamon County alone, it's going to go within a mile of 400 homes." Richart is a leader in the Coalition to Stop CO Pipelines, a coalition of Illinois environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, as well as landowners and residents. "The coalition believes the mad rush to build these pipelines as part of the technology called carbon capture is dangerous and a false solution that will keep Illinois reliant on fossil fuels," the coalition said in a news release. Coalition members tell the Times carbon sequestration technology isn't fully developed and that it diverts attention away from more viable CO reduction methods, such as wind and solar power. There's not enough regulation of the pipeline industry at the state or federal level, they tell the Times. And they point to recent efforts by the administration of President Joe Biden to potentially increase oversight of a pipeline industry that largely is funded through federal tax incentives received by CO producers that use pipelines… “Opponents also are asking local governmental officials to issue moratoriums on zoning permits for CO pipelines or sequestration and consider becoming a formal part of the ICC approval process as an "intervenor." The Christian County Board on May 17 voted 13-2, with 15 members voting "present," to impose a six-month moratorium on issuance of special-use permits for underground carbon sequestration facilities. But County Board Chairman Matt Wells, who isn't convinced the Navigator project will be good for farmers or the county as a whole, told the Times there are questions as to whether such a moratorium can be legally enforced. And Sangamon County Board Chairman Andy Van Meter told the Times, "Up to this point, the State's Attorney's Office has indicated that the County Board has no authority to stop the project. We have asked the State's Attorney's Office to take a deeper look and are awaiting their findings."
Reuters: Enterprise reports record natural gas pipeline volumes for Q2 2022
Stephanie Kelly
“U.S. midstream energy company Enterprise Products Partners LP on Wednesday said its natural gas pipeline volumes reached a record level in the second quarter of 2022,” Reuters reports. “Enterprise's total natural gas transportation volumes increased 19% to 16.8 trillion British thermal units per day (TBtus/d) in the second quarter from 14.2 TBtus/d in the same period of 2021. Enterprise also reported a record total gross operating margin of $2.4 billion and record distributable cash flow of $2 billion…. “Higher natural gas liquids (NGL) prices contributed to an increase in average processing margins for Enterprise's natural gas processing business, the company said in its second quarter earnings release… “Enterprise estimates that between now and 2027 NGLs out of the Permian Basin will grow about 1 million bpd, said Anthony Chovanec, senior vice president at Enterprise, during the company's earnings conference call. On Wednesday, Enterprise announced three expansions in the Permian to support production growth there, according to a separate news release. The projects include the addition of two natural gas processing plants and the expansion of the company's NGL pipeline system. For the company's crude oil pipeline and services segment, gross operating margin was $407 million in the quarter compared to $419 million a year earlier, the company said. Total crude oil pipeline transportation volumes increased to 2.2 million bpd from 2 million bpd.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Climate emergency may be dead, but left keeps pushing
Kelsey Brugger, 8/4/22
“The Democrats’ revived climate spending bill may be the death knell for one long-sought goal of progressives: declaring a climate emergency,” E&E News reports. “Momentum had been building for President Joe Biden to declare such an emergency last month after it seemed Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had sunk, yet again, a budget reconciliation package that included major climate provisions. In the moment, chances looked good. Climate envoy John Kerry had said that a formal emergency declaration was a matter of “when” not “if.” Biden told reporters he was personally mulling over the particulars. As all this was happening, progressives gathered in the Capitol last week to push for Biden to make the declaration… “So for now, a declaration, which could unlock funds to invest in solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles, has been put on the back burner. But that doesn’t mean climate hawks in Congress are going to stop pushing. Indeed, progressives and climate experts tell E&E a formal declaration will be necessary for the United States to meet its goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030… “The climate emergency [declaration] would give another tool so we can really get to that 50 percent, which is what the world needs to do — not just the United States — to prevent us from getting beyond 1.5 degrees [Celsius],” Rep. Khanna told E&E… “Progressive groups like the Center for Biological Diversity are also still pressing the president to declare an emergency. Jean Su, senior attorney at the center, co-authored a guide that outlined the legal authorities the president could wield under a declaration. For instance, the National Emergencies Act would allow the president to suspend the operations of all offshore oil and gas leases. The act would allow him to restrict U.S. fossil fuel exports that are primarily derived from the Permian Basin. The Defense Production Act would allow him to marshal domestic industry to manufacture renewable energy and clean energy transportation technologies. And the Stafford disaster relief act could allow him to direct FEMA to build renewable energy in partnership with environmental justice communities vulnerable to climate disasters.”
Grist: Is the Biden administration fast-tracking a ‘carbon disaster’ in Alaska?
Adam Federman, 8/3/22
“For more than four years, ConocoPhillips has been working with the federal government to expand oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve, a roughly 23-million-acre stretch of government-managed land on Alaska’s North Slope,” Grist reports. “...Willow’s road to approval has been rocky. Last year a federal court ordered the Department of the Interior to redo the project’s legally-required environmental impact statement, or EIS, a new draft of which was released early last month. Now, Congressional Democrats and the Native Village of Nuiqsut, a town of just over 500 people that is closest to the development, are asking the Biden administration for more time to weigh in on the new document. So far they’ve been met with silence. The Department of the Interior has not responded to formal requests to extend the public comment period on the draft EIS. Two letters obtained by Grist, one from the House Committee on Natural Resources and one from Nuiqsut, described the 45-day comment period — the minimum required by law — as inadequate for a project of this scope. The House committee also requested a response from the Interior Department by July 22 but still has not received an answer. The Interior Department did not respond to Grist’s formal requests for comment, but an employee who was not authorized to speak on the record told Grist that the requests to extend the comment period are “on everybody’s radar, but no decision has been made.” “...Ahtuangaruak told Grist that the Interior Department has been provided with a copy of the community’s subsistence calendar, and that August is one of the busiest times of year. Caribou are beginning to migrate through the region, it is the middle of a short moose hunting season, families are gathering berries and plants, and crews are getting ready to travel to Cross Island to prepare for the whale harvest. “Either we go out during this time to try to attempt our harvest, or we make a choice to miss out on the harvest and respond to this document,” Ahtuangaruak told Grist. “You can’t be online when you’re out harvesting.” A July 18 letter from the House Natural Resources Committee echoed Ahtuangaruak’s concerns and described the decision to hold a minimum 45-day comment period during the summer harvest season as “incredibly troubling.”
E&E News: Top House Democrat probes oil company earnings
Mike Lee, 8/4/22
“House Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone demanded information yesterday about record profits from some of the biggest U.S. oil producers as the head of the United Nations slammed what he called the industry’s “grotesque greed,” adding to the political fallout from one of Big Oil’s best-ever financial quarters,” E&E News reports. “Pallone (D-N.J.) sent letters to the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell PLC and BP PLC, saying his committee is investigating “what oil companies could and should be doing to bring down gas prices.” The four companies earned more than $50 billion in the second quarter of 2022, as the war in Ukraine pushed up oil prices and the average price of gasoline in the United States exceeded $5 a gallon. It was the best quarter on record for Exxon, Chevron and Shell, and the best since 2008 for BP, according to Reuters. “Your company is positioned to help alleviate Americans’ pain at the pump, but I am concerned that you are more focused on rewarding company executives and shareholders,” Pallone’s letters said. Pallone asked how much of their earnings the companies planned to spend on executive compensation, dividends and shareholder buybacks, and also how much of their capital budget will go to conventional oil and gas production versus cleaner forms of energy. The letters were sent the same day U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on governments to tax the oil companies’ profits and “use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.”
EXTRACTION
Associated Press: UN chief criticizes `grotesque greed' of oil companies
8/3/22
“The United Nations chief sharply criticized the “grotesque greed” of oil and gas companies on Wednesday for making record profits from the energy crisis on the back of the world’s poorest people, “while destroying our only home,” the Associated Press reports. “Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “immoral” that the largest energy companies in the first quarter of the year made combined profits of close to $100 billion. He urged all governments to tax these excessive profits “and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.” Guterres urged people everywhere to send a message to the fossil fuel industry and their financiers that “this grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people, while destroying our only common home, the planet.” “...Guterres told reporters that “we are seeing excessive, scandalous profits of the oil and gas industry in a moment in which all of us are losing money” because of inflation around 7-8%. And “nothing will be more popular than to tax the excessive profits … and to distribute that money to the most vulnerable families,” he said… “Guterres said new technologies including storage for batteries “should become public goods,” and governments must scale up and diversify supply chains for raw materials and renewable energy technologies. The group also recommends scaling up private and multilateral finance for “the green energy transition.” And it backed the International Energy Agency’s goal of increasing investments in renewable energy by a factor of seven to meet the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2050 to help curb man-made climate change. “Today, developing countries are spending around $150 billion on clean energy,” Grynspan, the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, told AP. “They need to spend $1 trillion in investments.”
Reuters: Big Oil offers big returns but keeps spending tight
Ron Bousso, Shadia Nasralla and Sabrina Valle, 8/3/22
“The West's energy giants are set to return a record $30 billion to investors after reporting bumper profits in the second quarter of the year following a surge in energy prices,” Reuters reports. “But the top five Western oil and gas companies have shied away from investing more of their combined record profits of nearly $60 billion in new production as they weigh the impact of recession and climate change on future fossil fuel demand. The reluctance to spend may exacerbate an energy supply crunch that has driven inflation to multi-decade highs and ignited calls from consumers and opposition leaders for governments to increase tax on energy companies. The spending approach contrasts with previous cycles of high oil and gas prices, such as the boom of the late 2000s that spurred rapid spending to boost production. "Given all the uncertainty in the world, now is not the time to lose discipline," BP Chief Executive Bernard Looney told Reuters after reporting BP's highest profit in 14 years… “Although the energy crisis caused by major fossil fuel producer Russia's invasion of Ukraine has in the short term placed the focus on countries using all available supplies, even if that means carbon-intensive coal, Western governments longer term are striving to shift to low-carbon energy. The International Energy Agency in May 2021 said investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal supply projects if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by the middle of the century to try to slow climate change. Within the group of leading energy companies, there has been a clear divergence as Exxon, Chevron and TotalEnergies plan to expand output in the coming years, while BP and Shell aim to keep production largely flat… “The record shareholder returns of $30 billion compare to quarterly pre-pandemic returns of between $16-$20 billion - and they are set to increase again in the third quarter, mainly in the form of buybacks.”
Reuters: U.S. shale producers keep eyes on returns, even as inflation bites
Liz Hampton, 8/2/22
“Top U.S. shale oil producers say they remain laser focused on shareholder returns, limiting production expenditures largely to offset higher costs for equipment, supplies and services,” Reuters reports. “The decision likely will hold down oil output increases while benefiting shareholders receiving higher payouts through dividends and share repurchases with U.S. crude prices above $95 per barrel. Devon Energy (DVN.N) this week raised its capital spending budget about 6% to between $2.2 billion to $2.24 billion, in part due to inflationary pressures. It has a $2 billion share buyback authorization in place, and said it could seek approval for additional purchases after raising its cash dividend by 22% from the prior quarter… “Devon Chief Executive Rick Muncrief said he is "not as bullish" on overall U.S. production growth for the second half of the year, and that he anticipates even the Permian - the largest U.S. producing basin - could see growth moderate amid supply chain constraints.”
Reuters: Occidental to cut debt and distribute cash, won't raise oil output
Sabrina Valle, 8/3/22
“Occidental Petroleum Corp plans to use the bonanza from high oil and gas prices to accelerate debt payments and cash distribution to shareholders but will not raise oil production, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. “White House officials have been urging oil producers to invest in more oil production to bring fuel prices down to consumers. The top oil producers in the U.S. and Europe posted record earnings in the second quarter, but kept a check on investments… “The company also said it resumed a buyback program after reaching its short-term debt reduction goals in the second quarter. With a cleaner balance sheet, the U.S. oil producer said it can now slightly raise dividends and sustain stock repurchases "over the next few years". Occidental also said it wants to accelerate a three-year target to bring debt down to $15 billion, from more than $21 billion now. Investment targets were unchanged. "We don't feel the need to grow production until we get beyond that point," Hollub told analysts on a webcast to discuss second quarter earnings. "Because we feel like one of the best values right now is investment in our own stock." United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday slammed the "grotesque greed" of oil companies, urging governments globally to "tax these excessive profits" to support the most vulnerable people.”
Reuters: Canadian oil producer Strathcona to buy Serafina for C$2.3 bln -sources
Shariq Khan and Rod Nickel, 8/3/22
“Strathcona Resources has agreed to buy private equity-backed Serafina Energy for C$2.3 billion ($1.8 billion), sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday, the largest acquisition yet by the Canadian private oil and gas producer,” Reuters reports. “Serafina produces 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day in the province of Saskatchewan. Strathcona is focused on the Montney basin in Alberta and British Columbia, Cold Lake oil sands and the Lloydminster heavy oil region. Strathcona produces 110,000 to 115,000 boe per day, mainly liquids… “Calgary, Alberta-based Strathcona — owned by Waterous Energy Fund — has been among the top buyers of oil and gas assets in Canada since it formed in 2020, hoping to profit from oil at near or above $100 per barrel since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… “But Canada’s upstream industry overall represents a buyers’ market as small producers struggle to access capital to make acquisitions, Pavic told Reuters.
OPINION
Carbon Capture Coalition: Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Makes Monumental Enhancements to the Foundational 45Q Tax Credit
Madelyn Morrison, Carbon Capture Coalition External Affairs Manager, 7/28/22
“On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced an agreement on budget reconciliation legislation—the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022—that includes $369B in climate and energy spending along with $300B in deficit reduction, among other things. If enacted, together with the historic investments made in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this package would provide the most transformative and far-reaching policy support in the world for the economywide deployment of carbon management technologies,” Madelyn Morrison writes for the Carbon Capture Coalition. “The Inflation Reduction Act rightfully recognizes carbon management’s vital role in reaching midcentury climate targets with its monumental enhancements to this suite of technologies foundational policy, the federal Section 45Q tax credit. The bill includes all of the Carbon Capture Coalition’s top legislative priorities for the 117th Congress. Under the bill’s provisions, any carbon capture, direct air capture or carbon utilization project beginning construction before January 1, 2033 will qualify for the federal 45Q tax credit… “Furthermore, the legislation significantly boosts credit values to accelerate project deployment and emissions reductions in key sectors, increasing the value of 45Q for industrial facilities and power plants that capture their carbon emissions to $85 per metric ton for CO2 stored in secure geologic formations, $60 per ton for the beneficial utilization of captured carbon emissions and $60 per ton for CO2 stored in oil and gas fields… “This legislation, coupled with the groundbreaking carbon management provisions included in the bipartisan infrastructure law, could deliver an estimated 13-fold increase in deployment of carbon management technologies and between 210 and 250 million metric tons of annual emissions reductions by 2035.”