Mountain State Times

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, held a hearing to discuss advancements in carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) technologies. The session also focused on the implementation of the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies Act, known as the USE IT Act.

During the hearing, Chairman Capito engaged with several key figures: Kevin Connors from the Energy and Environmental Research Center; Dan Yates of the Ground Water Protection Council; and Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh from Breakthrough Energy. Her inquiries centered around the pace at which the USE IT Act is being implemented, ways to enhance CCUS project permitting processes, and the significance of bipartisan efforts in these initiatives.

Chairman Capito highlighted several important points during her questioning:

"The USE IT Act was signed in 2020. I also alluded to the two CCUS Permitting Task Forces that have been established, one for federal lands, and one for non-federal lands. I'm interested to know…now that these Task Forces have been chartered and are operating, do you believe that will make an impact on identifying opportunities to improve the permitting, through these Task Forces, as the law requires?"

She further emphasized energy reliability concerns: "We have a repeating theme here, and I mentioned it in my opening statement of reliabilities because not only is this an intensive process, but we also see pressures on our potential for providing electricity."

On permitting challenges: "The key to all of this...is a permitting process that you can move along. You can't permit a nuclear plant...a pipeline...a transmission line...any help that you can give us with permitting...will cross benefit all projects."

Capito stressed bipartisanship's role: "As Senator Whitehouse said, this is going to be a bipartisan push. It's the only way to do it effectively...because we see what happens with the regulatory environment as shifts of Administrations go from one to another."

The hearing aimed at evaluating current progress and exploring strategies for improving CCUS technology deployment while maintaining legislative support across party lines.