House lawmakers introduce legislation to reauthorize DOE Office of Fossil Energy

On May 10, Representative Marc Veasey (D-TX-33) introduced the Fossil Energy Research and Development Act (H.R. 5745), which would reauthorize the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy for the first time in over a decade to expand research on new carbon capture, sequestration, and utilization technologies. The proposed legislation authorizes $825 million for FY 2019, with slight funding increases each year through FY 2023, for these research expansions.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee discusses bipartisan bill to boost carbon capture technology

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing to discuss the bipartisan Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act, or the USE IT Act (S.2602). Introduced by Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), the USE IT Act supports research and development of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies and facilitates a new permitting process for CCUS projects and carbon dioxide pipelines.

Bipartisan expansion of tax credits for carbon dioxide sequestration signed into law

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, signed into law by President Trump on February 9, contained language that provides tax incentives for carbon sequestration. The bill expands the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) tax credits and allows new CCUS technologies, such as direct air capture (DAC), to qualify. This language was initially proposed in the FUTURE Act (S.1535) introduced by Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) on July 12, 2017.

Bipartisan legislation introduced to curb carbon pollution

Power lines. Image Credit: U.S. Department of Energy

Representative Mike Conaway (R-TX-11) introduced the Carbon Capture Act (CCA). This legislation incentivizes Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) projects, which use technologies to capture up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions produced from industrial processes, including electricity generation.

Burying the Sky: Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Rock

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been an energy industry practice for decades, originating as a mechanism to enhance oil and gas recovery. But carbon dioxide gas is tricky to capture, and even trickier to store: Without airtight sealants and careful monitoring, the gas seeps up through cracks in the subsurface and quickly reenters the atmosphere. But what if the carbon dioxide could be instead stored as rock?

Carbon Capture and Sequestion Workshop in Trondheim, Norway

Society of Exploration Geophysicists

Scanning Electron Microscope Image of Hydromagnesite.

The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the European Association for Geoscientists and Engineers will be hosting a workshop on geophysical monitoring of carbon capture and sequestration. Following a successful workshop in 2009, this workshop will explore the developments and improvements in monitoring approaches such as fiber-optic sensing (downhole and at surface), seismic methods (e.g.