North Dakota Ag Connection - Hoeven: CCUS to Play Critical Role in Ensuring Energy Security

North Dakota Ag News Headlines

Hoeven: CCUS to Play Critical Role in Ensuring Energy Security
North Dakota Ag Connection - 10/15/2021

Senator John Hoeven stressed to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm the critical role that carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies will play in ensuring the nation remains energy secure. The senator made the remarks during a meeting at the University of North Dakota's Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), which he hosted along with Governor Doug Burgum.

Hoeven highlighted that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called CCUS the most important energy technology that exists today. The senator further outlined how North Dakota has been leading efforts for more than a decade to crack the code on CCUS, which will enable the U.S. to continue leveraging its oil, gas and coal resources to ensure Americans have access to reliable and affordable energy. To this end, Hoeven worked:

- As governor to establish the North Dakota CO2 Storage Workgroup in 2008 and advanced a bill through the state legislature to create a regulatory framework for carbon storage under the North Dakota Industrial Commission.

- As U.S. senator to secure Environmental Protection Agency approval of the state's permitting program for the permanent storage of CO2 using Class VI wells, the first such approval in the nation.

o North Dakota is one of only two states to have this regulatory authority.

"North Dakota is a global energy powerhouse, and the approach we are taking is a model for the nation, enabling us to make the best use of all of our state's abundant energy resources," said Hoeven. "We invited Energy Secretary Granholm here to discuss our state's leadership in CCUS and how to ensure we remain energy secure. That means harnessing our vast coal, oil and other diverse energy sources, maintaining baseload power to support the reliability and affordability of the grid and reducing our dependence on less stable parts of the world."

With the state's authority over CO2 storage in place, Hoeven is prioritizing:

- Front end investment in technology development, including bolstering the DOE-EERC partnership in support of efforts like Project Tundra.

o Hoeven has secured $43 million in federal funding for Project Tundra to date.

- Loan guarantees to help project developers secure financing to build the equipment and infrastructure needed to capture and store CO2.

o Hoeven included funding in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 for critical loan guarantee programs at DOE and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS).

o The senator also helped introduce bipartisan, bicameral legislation to provide flexible, low-interest loans and grants to support construction of CCUS infrastructure, like pipelines to transport CO2.

- Enhancements for the 45Q and 48A Advanced Coal tax credits to provide important revenue streams to project developers and encourage adoption of CCUS.

o Hoeven is sponsoring legislation to modernize the 48A tax credit for CO2 capture retrofit projects and helped introduce a bipartisan bill to provide a direct payment option for the 45Q and 48A CCUS tax incentives.

o The senator previously worked to get the 45Q tax credit implemented in a way that makes CCUS projects more commercially-viable.

Other North Dakota Headlines