🇺🇲 Where is Carbon Dioxide Removal (#CDR) heading in US policy? 🇺🇲

I spent the last two weeks meeting with CDR policymakers in Congress, leading NGOs, and CDR companies. Here is what I gathered about where US policy currently stands:

⚖ Only bipartisan efforts can succeed in this divided Congress

Since the midterms, Democrats control the Senate and Republicans the House of Representatives. In practice, this means that only bipartisan legislation (e.g. #CRESTAct) stands a chance. No significant new CDR legislation will be introduced in 2023/24.

✅ CDR still enjoys bipartisan support

Luckily, CDR has supporters across the political spectrum. The reasons for this vary from climate impact to jobs to benefits for farmers. CDR technologies can yield advantages and appeal to every single US state, whether coastal, landlocked, agricultural, or urban.

🖋 The Farm Bill is going to get messy

The #FarmBill is a $430b heavy omnibus legislation, updated every 5 years and due in 2023. It holds massive potential for climate friendly policies, including CDR. A divided Congress will make this challenging; the bill will likely only get passed in an election year, with a delay to 2024 likely.

🗳 States are moving ahead where Congress can´t

In times where progress at federal level is difficult, state level policy presents an excellent opportunity to move CDR forward. Examples are the $50m over 5 years #CDRLA in Massachusetts, with other ambitious bills in the works in NY, CA, and CO. State efforts can generate momentum and create valuable blueprints for federal efforts in the future.

❗Biomass based removals are not appreciated sufficiently

Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (#BiCRS) is a surprisingly little understood and less appreciated pathway in US policy circles. Despite the vast amounts of available biomass and obvious potential for large-scale short- to medium-term carbon removal, biomass approaches have not been meaningfully integrated into existing CDR legislation.

Do these findings resonate with you? What am I missing? And - more importantly - how do we act on this?

Shortly, I will be sharing a second post focused on bill-specific takeaways (#45Q, #CREST, #CDRLA, #BRNA, etc.) - watch this space for updates.

👏 For now, a huge thanks from me and Carbonfuture to everyone I had the pleasure to meet and who are pushing the envelope when it comes to CDR policy in the US, among others:

-> Senate: Valerie, Beth, Benjamin, Joe, Lizzie

-> House of Representatives: Miranda, Tom, J.R.

-> White House: Amar

-> DoE: Quincy

-> NGOs: Rudy, Simone, Ben, Jason, Charlotte, Katie

-> CDR companies: Alan, Sal, Claire, Calli

-> Toby

📣 A big shout-out also to all the amazing organizations that are leading the way on US CDR policy: The OpenAir Collective, Carbon180, Carbon Business Council, Direct Air Capture Coalition, RMI, Clean Air Task Force, Bipartisan Policy Center, and many others.