Happy New Year! And welcome back to the weekly Rundown.
1. A clear bipartisan path for climate change
Climate change is not partisan, and the challenge it poses to society merits significant action at every level of government and the private sector.
Climate solutions shouldn’t be partisan either.
What’s clear: If we are to truly tackle the global climate challenge, we will need some common ground and a dose of technological, economic, and political realism.
Tucked away in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was a small but mighty provision that has the potential to unlock a whole new wave of carbon storage projects: offshore carbon capture.
The offshore environment has largely been untapped as a resource for the permanent storage of CO2, despite the vast storage potential.
What’s clear: Offshore carbon storage offers an attractive complement to onshore storage for a variety of reasons:
It avoids heavily populated onshore areas.
There is reduced risk to underground sources of drinking water.
3. Barrasso, Manchin introduce advanced nuclear bill
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced legislation last month that would help fund the siting and construction of advanced nuclear reactors.
Plug in:The Fission for the Future Act would create a program for DOE to fund eligible entities to support their deployment of advanced nuclear power.
Priority would be given to applications that consider work at or near a retired/retiring power plant.
4. Clean hydrogen company could expand with DOE loan
DOE’s Loan Program Office (LPO) has offered a conditional commitment to guarantee a loan of approximately $1 billion to Monolith Nebraska, LLC to expand its facility in Hallam, Nebraska.
The expansion is expected to create more than 1,000 Nebraska jobs.
This project is the first-ever commercial-scale project to deploy methane pyrolysis technology, which converts natural gas into carbon black and hydrogen — two products that are often used in difficult to decarbonize industrial sectors. Hydrogen produced from the facility will be used to make fertilizer that supports America’s agricultural sector.
What’s clear: This conditional commitment demonstrates how DOE’s LPO can accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies.
The Monolith project can potentially catalyze a new and cleaner way of producing materials that are in products we use daily, including plastics, fertilizers, and tires.
That’s all from us. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
