The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced up to $1.2 billion to propel the progress of two commercial-scale direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana. These initiatives, marking the nation's first at this magnitude, are the inaugural choices from the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program, resulting from President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, according to an Aug. 11 news release.
“Cutting back on our carbon emissions alone won’t reverse the growing impacts of climate change; we also need to remove the CO2 that we’ve already put in the atmosphere — which nearly every climate model makes clear is essential to achieving a net-zero global economy by 2050,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in the release. “With this once-in-a-generation investment made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, DOE is laying the foundation for a direct air capture industry crucial to tackling climate change — transforming local economies and delivering healthier communities along the way.”
The Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs seek to initiate a comprehensive nationwide network of large-scale carbon removal facilities, aiming to mitigate the impact of historical carbon dioxide pollution and complement ongoing efforts for rapid emissions reduction, the release reported. The program emphasizes meaningful engagement with communities and labor.
These projects collectively anticipate the removal of more than 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to the yearly emissions of approximately 445,000 gasoline-powered cars, while generating 4,800 well-paying jobs in Texas and Louisiana, the release said.
The selected projects for the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program include Project Cypress in Calcasieu Parish, La., and the South Texas DAC Hub in Kleberg County, Texas. Led by Battelle and 1PointFive (a subsidiary of Occidental), respectively, these projects aim to capture and store significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere annually, contributing to carbon reduction efforts, according to the release.
