$3.7 Billion In "Carbon Capture" Grants Canceled By DOE: One Of The Few Climate "Solutions" GQP Likes

[hatrack]

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday announced that his department would cancel $3.7 billion in grants awarded to 24 projects that were primarily directed at helping companies decarbonize or implement carbon capture and sequestration technology, one of the few climate solutions that many Republicans agree on.

“The Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment,” Wright said.

The action comes despite the fact that congressional Republicans are leaving tax credits largely intact for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in draft legislation that otherwise broadly guts clean energy and decarbonization subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act. Many Republicans, including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, defend carbon capture, which has bipartisan support.

EDIT

While a $171 million award to food giant Kraft Heinz was listed as being made after the election, the grant was announced in early 2024, long before the election. That award was aimed at cutting emissions in Kraft Heinz manufacturing, including for its iconic boxed macaroni and cheese. The terminated grants include $332 million for ExxonMobil to switch from burning natural gas to hydrogen at its Baytown Olefins Plant outside Houston. That facility manufactures ethylene, a precursor for making plastics and other synthetic materials used in packaging, vehicles and electronics.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/30/energy-department-grant-cancelations/

[NNadir]

1. Every once in a while, they do the right thing for the wrong reason.

I support CO₂ separations research for closing the carbon cycle, but all efforts at "sequestration" are nonsense.

[hatrack]

2. Yep - hence my consistent use of quotation marks around the technology . . .

The only large-scale sequestration project that made even economic sense was Petra Nova.

What was Petra Nova all about?

Building a dedicated natural gas power plant to run the system that separated CO2 from a coal/NG plan so that CO2 could be shipped by pipeline to an aging oil field to so that field could (drum roll, please!!) . . .

Produce
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Oil