Biden Administration Spending $1.2 Billion To Remove CO2 From The Air

The U.S. Energy Department announced a $1.2 billion investment in two projects that remove carbon dioxide from the air, one in Texas and one in Louisiana. The two sites are expected to eliminate over 2 million metric tons of CO2 every year, making the initiative the largest of its kind to date in the United States.

“This is like taking nearly half a million gas-powered cars off the road,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a call with the press on Friday. “This technology can help us make serious headway toward our net zero emissions goals.”

This $1.2 billion is the first portion of money allocated to specific projects out of a $3.5 billion program created to remove carbon from the atmosphere by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Two more carbon removal sites are expected to be announced in 2024.

This is the most amount of funding the U.S. government has ever dedicated to direct air capture (DAC). The technology uses chemical reactions to separate CO2 from the air; companies have different means of storing the CO2, but many store it underground.

“These hubs are going to help the U.S. achieve a net zero greenhouse gas economy by 2050,” Mitch Landrieu, Senior Advisor to the President and the White House Infrastructure Coordinator for the bipartisan initiative, said in the call. He said the projects will create 5,000 new jobs between Texas and Louisiana.

The Louisiana hub, “Project Cypress” will be built by a carbon storage company called Battelle, along with two partners: DAC companies Climeworks Corporation and Heirloom Carbon Technologies. Climeworks is one of the most prominent DAC startups, with over $830 million raised in funding, according to Crunchbase; Heirloom was cofounded by Forbes 30 Under 30 alum Noah McQueen.

Project Cypress will aim to capture more than one million metric tons per year of CO2 from the atmosphere and store it permanently underground in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. The new hub will open about 2,300 new jobs and they committed to hiring former fossil fuel industry employees for at least 10% of the workforce.

In Texas, the project “South Texas DAC Hub” will be built by the carbon capture company 1PointFive, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum
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, in collaboration with engineering company Worley and another carbon capture company called Carbon Engineering. They are also aiming to remove up to one million metric tons of CO2 annually and store it underground in Kleberg County, TX. The project will be hiring for 2,500 jobs and said they will prioritize local hiring.

The DOE said both hubs will establish a system for local communities to provide feedback about how the site is impacting them.