Source: United States Senator for Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse
Guidance was called for in Whitehouse’s bipartisan USE IT Act
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a leading climate champion in the Senate, today applauded new guidance on carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) released by the Biden administration’s Council on Environmental Quality. The guidelines for developers and operators of CCUS projects and carbon dioxide pipelines were called for in Whitehouse’s Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) Act.
“We’re on track to overshoot the 1.5-degree Celsius safe zone, and carbon utilization and direct air capture have roles to play in mitigating the damage to the planet,” said Whitehouse. “This new federal guidance will allow the bipartisan USE IT Act we shepherded into law to be fully deployed in support of promising technologies that remove pollution from the air.”
The guidance addresses environmental reviews, community engagement, and permitting for CCUS projects. It is available for public comment through March 18, 2022.
Whitehouse and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sponsored the USE IT Act. The legislation expanded carbon utilization and direct air capture research and provided new support for federal, state, and non-governmental collaborations in the construction and development of CCUS facilities and carbon dioxide pipelines. The bill was signed into law in December 2020.