Four members asked leaders of the full US Senate and the Finance Committee to include a carbon capture and storage credit in a yearend tax extenders package. “Federal investment in CCS technologies is a critical component of our national energy and emissions reduction policies and has the potential to be an economic boon for US companies and researchers,” Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), John A. Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-Va.) said in their Dec. 14 letter.
The four primary sponsors of S. 1535 asked Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Ranking Minority Member Charles M. Schumer (D-NY), and Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Minority Member Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) to include their measure, which would preserve and extend the Section 45Q federal tax credit for CCS projects, in the tax extenders package.
“Due to long lead times for construction of carbon capture projects, the Section 45Q credit has, for practical purposes already expired,” Heitkamp and the other senators said. “The lack of financial certainty regarding future availability of credits is deterring private investment in new commercial projects.”
While the US has led the world in the demonstration of carbon capture technology, large-scale commercial deployment will be limited without an effective federal incentive, they warned. Congress has provided effective federal incentives to encourage investment in and implementation of other critical energy technologies, helping to reduce their costs and make them more competitive, the lawmakers noted.
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