On Friday, November 5th, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which will now be sent to President Biden to be signed into law. 

The IIJA includes $12.1 billion for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology activities that are supported by CURC.  In particular, the bill includes legislation advocated for by CURC to fund CCUS large-scale pilot and demonstration projects, large-scale carbon storage projects, and CCUS transportation infrastructure.  Each of these activities are recommended in the CURC-EPRI Roadmap and are a critical component of scaling CCUS technologies towards commercialization. The bill also includes significant funding for hydrogen-related RD&D activities and allows for hydrogen produced via fossil fuels with CCUS to qualify for that funding.

CURC Executive Director Shannon Angielski issued the following statement in support of the legislation:

“The Carbon Utilization Research Council (CURC) welcomes the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in the House of Representatives and looks forward to it being signed into law by President Biden. Provisions included in the IIJA to bolster carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) are the product of several years of work by lawmakers who recognize the vital role that CCUS must play to achieve decarbonization objectives and maintain global competitiveness. CURC commends the many leaders representing both parties in both the House and Senate that have championed these provisions.

Deployment of CCUS technologies is necessary to achieve both domestic and international climate objectives, and it will be critical to both preserve and create new well-paying jobs in communities across the United States. In order to achieve those goals, it is critical for the U.S. to move beyond lab- and bench-scale testing of CCUS technologies towards commercial deployment in both the power and industrial sectors. To that end, the IIJA will invest over $12 billion over the next five years to deploy CCUS technologies to support decarbonization of the power and industrial sectors as well as remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It also makes critical investments in carbon dioxide transport infrastructure that will underpin the entire CCUS ecosystem.

Combined with the Section 45Q tax credit, the IIJA provisions provide the necessary foundation to deploy first-mover CCUS projects and, ultimately, drive down costs in support of the creation of a CCUS industry in this country that will make the U.S. a global technology leader.

We look forward to working with federal agencies to ensure that these programs are implemented in an effective and efficient manner that will further promote CCUS deployment.”