US Energy Department restores funds to carbon removal projects

According to a list of major projects that the Department of Energy sent to Congress earlier this week, the funding will be retained for?carbon direct-air capture? awarded during the Biden administration.

In October last year, DOE considered canceling billions of dollars worth of funding for clean energy programmes, including awards for auto manufacture, hydrogen, and carbon capture.

Two major direct air capture hubs, one in Texas and the other in Louisiana, which received $1.2 billion in?awards under former President Joe Biden’s administration are slated to be cancelled.

Energy Department said in October that it would be conducting a "personalized and thorough review of financial awards" made by the previous administration.

The DOE confirmed the South Texas DAC hub and Louisiana's?"Project Cypress" were on the list for nearly 2,000 projects who?would maintain their funding.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at a hearing of the Congress on Thursday that DOE had reviewed a list of projects, and supported those which it felt "had a plausible way to be helpful."

Wright stated, "We have had hundreds of back-and-forth conversations with applicants."

The Biden administration had aimed to'reduce U.S. greenhouse gases by accelerating the nascent technology of carbon removal. The two hubs, when fully operational, could remove more than 2 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from the air.

Biden awarded Project Cypress and South Texas $550 million each, but they had only received the first tranche of $50 million each.

The DOE's Hydrocarbons, Geothermal and Renewable Energy Office (HGEO), will be?involved with the next steps in deploying these hubs and unlocking appropriated and obligated funding.

Some of the captured carbon will be used as a feedstock for the production of jet fuel and other fuels, at a time when the global fuel supply chain has been put under pressure due to the conflict in Iran.

(source: Reuters)