The Biden administration has issued new federal guidelines for government agencies on how to evaluate carbon capture proposals.
Biden’s administration has made it clear on multiple occasions that carbon capture technology will ‘likely’ be a necessity to meet climate goals.
The new federal guidelines describe the steps that would promote the deployment of ‘controversial’ climate tech that is carbon capture on a larger scale.
This also includes the pipeline network and other infrastructural elements that will go along with it.
Last year, lawmakers passed the dramatic $1.2 trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill, $12 billion of which is set to be spent on carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) projects.
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And the guidelines issued on Tuesday by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) partly address some of the many concerns that this divisive technology is surrounded with.
One of these concerns is that CCUS will potentially allow major carbon polluters, such as the fossil fuels industry, to continue operating as they have.
Another potential issue brought up by critics is the negative impact that such projects may have on nearby communities.
The new rules now instruct federal agencies how to thoroughly review proposed CCUS projects and assess their environmental impact.
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In addition to solutions that capture carbon dioxide from industrial facilities and power plants before they can enter the atmosphere, the White House has also included direct air capture (DAC) solutions under the umbrella of CCUS.
Unlike what is typically understood as CCUS, DAC removes CO2 that is already in the air, hence it does away with old emissions.
Nonetheless, both types of technological solutions rely on similar infrastructure, which also includes pipelines needed for the transportation of captured carbon emissions to have them stored underground or recycled and turned into useful products.
