Last week the Department of Energy announced $7 billion in funds to be made available for carbon capture, transport and storage infrastructure. These programs were established from both the Energy Act of 2020, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was passed in late 2021. Of this funding, $4.9 billion will be made available for three programs managed through the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM). The remaining $2.1 billion will be made available through the Loan Program Office (LPO).
The Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects program will award $2.54 billion to six integrated carbon capture, transport and storage demonstration projects. This includes $189 million for 20 integrated front-end engineering design studies. The program is intended to support projects that can easily be deployed and implemented in large scale industrial and power generation facilities, in an effort to cut industrial emissions. The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) can be found here.
The second program awards $100 million to support carbon dioxide transport engineering and design. This program seeks to fund the design and planning of regional pipeline networks for CO2 transportation. The full FOA can be found here.
The third FOA announced is $2.25 billion for the development of new and expanded large-scale, commercial carbon storage projects. The Carbon Storage Validation and Testing program supports the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative for carbon capture and storage deployment. The full FOA can be found here.
Finally, $2.1 billion will be made available for loan guarantees and grants through the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation (CIFIA) program. The purpose of this program is to finance large-capacity transport infrastructure to move CO2 from capture to facilities to storage or conversion facilities. More information about opportunities for funding through this program can be found here.
The programs and funding authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have unprecedented opportunities for the energy services and technology sector of the industry. The programs these bills support, such as the Orphaned Well Plugging Program which provides up to $7.2 billion to remediate wells and the $369 billion allocated to support clean energy programs, underscore the historic potential this legislation provides.
As federal agencies begin to establish and expand these new programs, the Energy Workforce Government Affairs team will continue to monitor and keep Members updated on opportunities to apply for funds or comment on the development of regulations impacting the industry.
Energy Workforce Member Companies continue to lead the way producing energy cleaner and more efficiently, and the perspectives and partnerships our Member Companies have will be an invaluable resource as the government works towards a cleaner and more secure energy future.
If you are interested in Energy Workforce’s advocacy efforts or would like to join the Government Affairs Committee, contact SVP Government Affairs & Counsel Tim Tarpley.
Deidre Almstead Kohlrus, Director Government Affairs, writes about industry-specific policies for the Energy Workforce & Technology Council. Click here to subscribe to the Energy Workforce newsletter, which highlights sector-specific issues, best practices, activities and more.
