As DOE Invests $1.2B in Direct Air Capture, Climate Justice Groups Decry Business as Usual | Sustainable Brands (2024)

Many see DAC as a necessary, if imperfect, tool forachieving needed carbon reductions; but climate justice groups oppose anything that perpetuates petrochemical operation, which often disproportionately harms communities where they are built.

As part of the Biden administration's Investing in Americaagenda, the USDepartment of Energy (DOE) recently announced up to $1.2 billion infunding for two direct air capture (DAC)hubsin Louisiana and Texas. The two regional DAC hub projects — South TexasDAC Hub and ProjectCypress — will include infrastructurenecessary to capture, process and permanently store carbon dioxide underground.Once running, the hubs are expected to collectively remove over two millionmetric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year — the equivalent oftaking nearly half a million cars off the road — and to create over 5,000 jobs.

“These hubs are going to prove out the potential of this game-changingtechnology, so that others can follow in our footsteps,” said Secretary ofEnergy Jennifer Granholm, in a pressbriefing made available to Sustainable Brands®. “If you deploy this atscale, this technology can help make serious headway toward our net-zeroemissions goals while we are still focused on [deploying] more clean energy atthe same time.”

DAC is a process that separates CO2 directly from the air. Captured CO2 can beused to make a growing range of products — from cleaningproducts,plasticandtextilestoconcreteandfuels— or pumped deep underground for permanent storage. Still in its infancy, theDAC industry will require massive funding to prove market viability and scale asan effective climate solution.

Investing in America earmarks $3.5 billion for creating four regional DAC hubsaimed at kickstarting a nationwide network of commercial-scale carbon-removalprojects. Project Cypress, in Calcasieu Parish, LA, will be operated bynonprofit science and technology company Battellein coordination with Heirloom Carbon Technologies and Zurich-based ClimeworksCorporation. The South Texas DAC Hub (KlebergCounty, TX) will be developed by a subsidiaryof US oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum.

The investment in these and other carbon-management projects is part of thelarger Investing in America agenda — the Biden administration's economicstrategy aimed at rebuilding a low carbon economy from the bottom-up andmiddle-out, not the top down. The funding was made available through theBipartisan InfrastructureAct,which invests billions in infrastructure improvements and climate-resiliencyprojects.

Most experts agree that DAC is a necessary tool in mitigating the worst effectsof climate change. However, it’s nopanacea:DAC requires large amounts of energy to operate, and is less effective inmitigating climate change than real emissions reductions and other nature-baseddrawdownsolutions.

Gov. John Bel Edwards (D)lauded DACinvestments in his state, citing Louisiana as a prime candidate for developingzero-carbon technologies to remove industrial carbon pollution from the air.Louisiana, incidentally, is home to some of the most congested petrochemicalbuildout in the world, known colloquially as “CancerAlley.”Gov Edwards stated he hopes DAC will play a role in mitigating emissions fromthe state’s massive petrochemical sector.

But groups including the Climate JusticeAlliance (CJA) oppose the buildout ofany infrastructure that could serve to perpetuate further petrochemicaloperation, which often disproportionately harms communities where they arebuilt.A joint statement released by CJA’s MarionGee and BasavSen, Climate Justice PolicyDirector at the Institute for Policy Studies, decried theDOE announcement:

“Direct air capture allows polluting industries to live on when we should befocusing on a just transition torenewables,”Gee wrote. “In an effort to move quickly and carelessly to balance a ‘carbonbudget,’ the backyards that he’s talking about building in … [will] be Blackfolks, Indigenous communities and poor BIPOC neighbors — sacrificed, yet againin the name of protecting corporate interests."

CJA argues DAC is a red herring pushed by the fossil fuel industry and itspolitical backers designed to distract from the real solution — phasing outfossilfuels.

“Anything else is just smoke and mirrors,” Sen asserted. “The Bidenadministration should stop their cynical political game of squandering publicfunds on unproven, expensive and potentially dangerous schemes such as directair capture — purportedly to gain credibility for backing climate solutions,while doubling down on expanding fossil fuels."

Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations Deputy Director KellyCumminssaidthat neither of the hubs will use captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery — asignificant departure from current carbon-management practices. Cummins saidcommunity and stakeholder engagement represented 20 percent of thedecision-making process to go ahead with these plants; and a mandatory communitydevelopment fund has been established to help meet the administration’s goal of40 percent of clean energy investments going to underserved communities mostimpacted by climate change.

Battelle will purchase clean power offsets for Project Cypress, though BatellePresident and CEO Lou VonThaer admitted in the press briefing that thefocus of the project is technology demonstration. Occidental President and CEOVicki Hollubsaidthe Texas project will be powered directly by solar.

When asked during the briefing if the hubs will sell carboncredits,Cummins replied: “What we’re really focused on for these DAC hub projects ismaking sure that the technology can scale at the commercial level … We want tomake sure that these companies and these projects are financially viable in thelong term, so we are not restricting revenue sources.”

DOE hopes these moves will further scale what it calls “responsible carbonmanagement” across the US. In addition to funding four carbon-removal hubs, DOEwill fund early-stage efforts to explore the feasibility of an additional 19 DAChub projects; though these projects may not receive DOE funding nor even breakground.

DOE expects solicitation for additional hubs in 2024.