To watch a video of Senator Manchin’s opening remarks, please click here.

To watch a video of Senator Manchin’s questioning, please click here.

Washington, DC – Today, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to examine the opportunities and challenges that exist for advancing and deploying carbon and carbon-dioxide (CO2) utilization technologies in the United States. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Committee, reiterated his support for carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) technologies to reduce emissions and the need to accelerate CO2 infrastructure permitting processes to support buildout of the entire CCUS ecosystem.

Chairman Manchin then questioned witnesses on what would be needed in order to sufficiently scale-up CCUS technologies to help meet President Biden’s ambitious goal of reducing the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by fifty percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The Director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Dr. Brian Anderson, commented on the need to drive down the cost of CCUS technologies: “We have some aggressive targets. We’re sitting between $42 and $48 per metric ton of CO2 captured. We want to get to $30 per metric ton of CO2 captured to then provide that low-cost feedstock for the CO2 utilization that provides another mechanism for providing market value. Continuing the efforts that we’re working on and discussing today to provide options to create other vehicles for funding carbon capture efforts is also critical”

CarbonBuilt, Inc.’s Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Gaurav Sant, discussed the needs for market support and clean products purchasing standards: “There are three things I would touch on. Number one is that we need to do large scale commercial projects. The next thing we really need is the creation of markets. I think this is where the government can play a really significant role. We need ‘buy clean’ purchasing mandates to really come about. The third thing we need is permitting not simply for sequestration but also for utilization. If we can couple this with the right kinds of incentives, particularly tax credits and direct payments where we couple carbon reduction goals with energy efficiency improvements, then there’s a much higher incentive to actually make a difference.”

Ramaco Coal’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Randall Atkins, discussed the benefits of coal as a feed-stock for products in a low-carbon future: “If we could have a dramatically larger shift away from necessarily using coal for power production and use it for a non-greenhouse producing function, such as products, that would have a dramatically positive effect. I think a number of items talked about, like tax policy and funding for research, are important components as well.”

Chairman Manchin made clear his commitment to implementing the provisions of his Energy Act of 2020 that will help support the advancement and deployment of CCUS technologies which are critical to revitalizing our economy and achieving our climate goals.

The hearing featured witnesses from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Wyoming Integrated Test Center, Ramaco Coal, CarbonBuilt, Inc., and UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. To read their testimony click here.

To watch the hearing in full, please click here.

###