Click here or the image above to watch Ranking Member Capito’s questions.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, questioned witnesses about innovative ways Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) projects can be better deployed in regions across the country to grow the economy and preserve and create jobs.
HIGHLIGHTS:
ENERGY-PRODUCING STATES PREPARED TO LEAD ON CCUS: “It’s clear…that there are a number of projects that are looking to locate Louisiana because of how Louisiana has translated its expertise in oil and gas development into expertise on carbon capture and storage. Are companies looking at geologic storage onshore and offshore? How is that split?”
IMPORTANCE OF A READY WORKFORCE, INFRASTRUCTURE TO CCUS: “Could you also discuss…what having a proximity to conventional oil and gas operations, like refineries and petrochemical facilities, affects the economy of scale of CCUS? We know how expensive it is. And does this proximity also provide with you a ready workforce since they’re accustomed to working in these kind of projects and environment?”
ADVANTAGES OF CLASS VI WELL REGULATORY PRIMACY MOVING FORWARD: “Congratulations on North Dakota being the first state in the nation to get the primacy on the Class VI wells, so well done. Thank you for mentioning our state, I know we're interested in this. How has that specifically helped your state? Is it encouraging more additional project development? Has it increased efficiency and moving projects along? What kind of effects are you seeing since you were able to make this achievement?”
IMPROVING THE 45Q TAX CREDIT: “To make the 45Q tax credit more beneficial and be able to deploy these technologies faster and make the projects go faster there has been some discussions of direct pay of the tax credit. Do you think that that is something that we should seriously look at? Do you have an opinion on that?”
CCUS HELPING COMMUNITIES IMPACTED BY EMISSIONS: “There was some initial discussion I think in several of your statements about communities that have been heavily impacted by emissions. And there's been some discussion in committee as well as to how to help those communities. And in my view, I think that industrial use of carbon capture is a tremendous way to help those communities, obviously, from CO2 emissions. But isn't it also a way to if carbon capture is occurring at industrial sites, say a refinery is next door to a disadvantaged community who's been living there forever…are there other pollutants that are removed as you're cleaning up the carbon, you're cleaning up other things as well? Is that is that the case?”
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