ClearPath Action Rundown
November 3rd, 2023
Happy Friday!
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1. ClearPath Advisory board member testifies before Senate EPW…
ClearPath’s Advisory Board Member, Paul Dabbar, former Under Secretary for Science at DOE, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s hearing Wednesday, highlighting:
- The importance of American innovation,
- U.S. leadership in reducing global emissions, and
- Delivering tech-neutral solutions to the climate challenge.
During the hearing, Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said, “American innovation will rise to the occasion.”
What's clear: America remains a global leader in energy production and innovative technologies that lead to emissions reductions. The U.S. has significantly ramped up its research and development efforts pertaining to energy within the past decade.
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2. …and Senate ENR covers CCUS/DAC
Meanwhile, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to examine opportunities and challenges in deploying carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) and direct air capture (DAC) technologies.
The hearing featured:
- The need for the EPA to swiftly grant permits for Class VI wells to store captured CO2 in underground geologic sites, or
- Grant primacy to states to issue their own permits for these wells.
- To date, the EPA has a backlog of 169 Class VI well permit applications, and multiple states are in the process of applying for primacy.
Ranking Member Barrasso (R-WY) said, “If we intend to maintain electric reliability in this country and reduce emissions at the same time, it is critical that we get this right. That means advancing policies that give carbon capture technologies a chance to reach its full potential.”
The EPA has announced $50 million in funding from the IIJA will be for states to apply for Class VI primacy. The funds will be allocated evenly among the 25 states and Tribes interested in obtaining Class VI primacy for permanent sequestration of carbon dioxide underground.
What's clear: CCUS and DAC technologies are critical to reduce and remove CO2 emissions. Despite momentum in developing projects, challenges remain in the transport and storage of captured CO2.
Plug in: ClearPath’s CEO Rich Powell was quoted in a feature story from Gas Pathways on the issue, stating, “The development and deployment of more CCUS projects and related infrastructure are essential to reducing CO2 emissions from the electricity and industrial sectors, domestically and globally.”
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3. New Senate permitting bill to REPAIR broken judicial review
ClearPath Action endorsed the Revising and Enhancing Project Authorizations Impacted by Review (REPAIR) Act (S. 3170), introduced this week by Sen. Cassidy (R-LA). The bill proposes judicial review reforms to hold a more predictable permitting process for projects.
What's clear: The permitting system in place benefits those seeking to delay instead of those aiming to build. The REPAIR Act will maintain the ability to bring legitimate legal challenges while ending the vicious cycle of project lawsuits that impede America from embarking on projects.
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4. Plans for the U.S.’ first hydrogen combustion turbine
Duke Energy recently announced its plan to build and operate America’s first system capable of producing, storing and combusting 100% hydrogen in a combustion turbine in DeBary, Florida.
- Duke will produce hydrogen through electrolysis, the process of separating oxygen and hydrogen atoms in water, using low-emissions electricity.
- It will deliver stored hydrogen to a combustion turbine (CT) with GE Vernova technology.
- They predict full function in 2024. If met, this will be the country’s first operating CT running on pure Hydrogen.
What's clear: Hydrogen has the potential to unlock some of the biggest energy challenges — electricity grid resilience, energy storage and industrial decarbonization.
Plug in: Learn more about this dynamic clean energy source here.
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5. DAC Hubs could lead gigaton scale for carbon removal
ClearPath’s Senior Program Manager Savita Bowman moderated a panel at GreenBiz’s VERGE 23 Climate Tech Conference on the two new DOE Direct Air Capture Hubs.
What's clear: The new DAC facilities in Texas and Louisiana will bring together new and established DAC developers, backers from the oil and gas industry, engineering companies and partners that can store captured carbon underground. These projects will pioneer the carbon removal industry to meet the needed gigaton scale of carbon removal.
Pictured L to R: Savita Bowman, Senior Program Manager for Carbon Management at ClearPath, Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director at XPRIZE Carbon Removal, Trey Fournier, Director, Projects at 1PointFive, Max Scholten, Head of Commercialization at Heirloom, and Rafael Broze, Engineered Removals Lead at Microsoft
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6. Making waves in ocean carbon removal
Captura, a U.S.-based ocean carbon removal start-up, is partnering with energy company Equinor to develop industrial-scale solutions for removing CO2 from the ocean.
- The partnership’s pilot in Norway could remove 1,000 tons of excess CO2 from the ocean annually.
- The pilot will help scale up technology and lead to commercial facilities.
What's clear: Regulatory burdens may be driving U.S. ocean CDR technologies abroad. A streamlined and consolidated legal framework that simplifies the U.S. ocean CDR permitting process, would provide clarity to researchers and project developers, and ensure that America can lead the world in ocean CDR RD&D.
Plug in: Check out our take on ocean carbon dioxide removal permitting and regulations in the U.S. here.
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7. ICYMI
- The DOE announced awards for electric transmission projects in six states: Nevada-Utah, Arizona-New Mexico and New Hampshire-Vermont.
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That's all from us. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
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