Carbon Capture Initiatives and 45Q

February 18, 2020

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by Cácia Pimentel* (Advanced Biofuels USA) On February 15^th the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) Carbon Management Research Initiative and the Women in Energy program hosted a panel of experts to discuss carbon capture policies and technologies, especially Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS). CCUS are methods and technologies to remove CO₂from the atmosphere and recycle it for further utilization in industrial processes or for permanent storage.

Speakers included Judi Greenwald, a Fellow at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. She is also the Principal of Greenwald Consulting LLC, providing energy and environmental expert advice. Romany Webb is a Senior Fellow with the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Changer Law. Shannon Angielski is the Principal for Governmental Issues and advises on energy policy issues at Van Ness Feldman LLP. She is also the Executive Director of the Carbon Utilization Research Council (CURC). Julio Friedmann, a senior Research Scholar at CGEP, served as the moderator.

Cross-section illustrating how carbon dioxide and water can be used to flush residual oil from a subsurface rock formation between wells.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

Carbon capture is an emission reduction technology that can be applied across the fossil energy value chain.

For example, companies can increase oil production out of existing wells using carbon dioxide and companies are paying for CO₂to do this.

One way to obtain CO₂is by drilling for CO₂that naturally occurs underground, bringing it up and reinjecting it into the oil wells.

Meanwhile, energy consumers are producing CO₂ as waste and emitting it into the atmosphere. This means that there is a shortage of CO₂supply for companies and at the same time a tremendous release of CO₂into the atmosphere.

This carbon capture technology started back in 1972 led by the United States, and now there are approximately 4500 miles of pipelines. The CO₂is stored underground where the oil used to be before it was extracted. There are around 20 operating plants around the world, most of them in the United States. There is about two decades of carbon dioxide already in storage and the capacity to store centuries worth of CO₂emissions. The challenge now is to build up the pipeline network from sources to sinks.

A drawback of this Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) type of CCUS technology is that it is mainly used to enhance oil fields productive life, adding decades of drilling and many million barrels of oil that otherwise would not be drilled. Thus, this technology increases the presence of fossil fuel in the energy matrix.

Scientists learned how to capture the carbon dioxide that would bring hope for the environment if it were applied to meet the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) level of 350 Mt CO₂ captured per year.

CCUS can achieve deep decarbonization mostly for two reasons. First, 40% of global emissions come from industrial processes and their CO₂emission can be reduced by carbon capture. Second, public and private agents have been too slow to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to achieve climate change mitigation goals and therefore, countries will have to achieve negative emissions. This means, direct capture of emissions already in the atmosphere. To do so, CCUS is required.

Despite scientific recognition that carbon capture should be a relevant emissions mitigation technology, its deployment to protect the environment is not on the radar, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

SECTION 45Q –

Section 45Q is a U.S. tax credit that encourages the development of projects and processes that trap carbon dioxide from power plants and industrial facilities, depositing it in safe reservoirs. Panelists highlighted the potential of 45Q as an incentive to the market. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is still developing guidance for the updated credits, creating uncertainty and potentially delaying projects. A Congress Coalition is urging the IRS to speed those guidance rules to help companies take advantage of the carbon tax credit statute. Unfortunately, two years has passed since the issue of 45Q without additional regulation of how companies can achieve the credits.

THE ROLE OF BIOFUELS

Companies can capture carbon with biofuels production. For instance, under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, it is possible to get tax credit if a biofuel company proves to capture carbon in its process and store it. Not only the growing plants absorb CO₂, but the biofuel plant may produce energy by capturing and storing any resulting greenhouse gas emission from the energy production process.

NOTHING IS EASY, BUT EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Although the CO₂ market today is mostly comprised of fossil fuel companies, the potential to help a net-zero CO₂ emission economy growth is huge. The IEA states that “early opportunities could be developed, especially those related to building materials. Public procurement of low-carbon products can help to create an early market for CO2-derived products and assist in the development of technical standards. In the long term, CO2 sourced from biomass or the air could play a key role in a net-zero CO2 emission economy, including as a carbon source for aviation fuels and chemicals”.

The US desperately needs comprehensive national policies on climate, states Greenwald. She affirms that different climate solutions working together can reinforce good results and reach the finish line together. Indeed, 45Q can strongly help develop new pathways to use CO₂ as energy, different technologies can be incentivized to capture released carbon and therefore help the world achieve climate goals. But for that, experts are unanimous: legal reform is urgent!

*Brazilian attorney, Cacia Pimentel is a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and a PhD candidate in Political and Economic Law at Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo. She holds a Master of Laws from Cornell University, New York.

Chevron invests in carbon capture technology company (Houston Chronicle)

CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States (World Resources Institute)

HOEVEN: RED TRAIL ENERGY TO BEGIN DRILLING A STRATIGRAPHIC WELL FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION, WILL ENABLE ETHANOL EXPORTS TO STATES LIKE CALIFORNIA: Senator Secured North Dakota’s Regulatory Primacy over Class VI Wells, Supporting PCOR, CarbonSAFE & 45Q Tax Credit to Advance Development of Commercially-Viable CCUS (Office of Senator John Hoven (R-ND))

Going Deep on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), with Julio Friedmann (Resoureces Magazine; includes AUDIO)

SENATORS WANT MNUCHIN TO GRANT CARBON CAPTURE TAX EXTENSIONS: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: SENATORS WANT MNUCHIN TO GRANT CARBON CAPTURE TAX EXTENSIONS:If Treasury is giving the wind industry an extension on its tax credits, then carbon capture projects should get one too, a bipartisan group of seven senators said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday. The senators, led by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), highlight a separate letter first reported in POLITICO earlier this month in which Treasury said it would grant wind and solar projects begun in 2016 an extra year to complete work in order to claim the full value of their tax credits.

But carbon capture projects had to wait years for IRS to write key rules to access the credit, and now social distancing measures prompted by pandemic response have slowed projects further. "In light of the wide-ranging impacts COVID-19 continues to have on the American economy, combined with the over two-year delay in final 45Q guidance, it makes sense to provide as much administrative flexibility as possible," the senators said their letter. "The reported action Treasury is taking on behalf of wind and solar projects should be replicated for carbon sequestration projects seeking to utilize the 45Q credit."

Cramer will likely press Mnuchin on this point today when he testifies before the Senate Banking Committee on the first quarterly report to Congress on the CARES Act. READ MORE