Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) and Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small (NM-02) announced their letter to call on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis to include a higher credit level under the new 45Q tax credit for direct air capture (DAC) in its recommendations, and maintain the current inclusion of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) among the qualified uses of carbon dioxide for purposes of claiming the credit.

Direct air capture is an emerging approach to eliminating carbon from the atmosphere, technology critical to reducing global greenhouse emissions.  In their letter, the members call on the Select Committee to support policies, like EOR, that are already being deployed across the country to incentivize private-sector deployment of DAC in the near term to ensure the United States can meet its emissions goals while ensuring reliable and affordable energy.

“IPCC estimates that we may need to remove 1,000 billion metric tons in total to keep temperature rise under 1.5⁰C this century.  Direct air capture (DAC) is a leading approach to meet the size of this challenge,” the members wrote.  

They continued: “We therefore urge the Select Committee to include a higher credit level for DAC in its recommendations, and maintain the current inclusion of EOR among the qualified uses of the CO2 for purposes of claiming the credit.  Only with this policy support will we have a chance of meeting the very ambitious carbon dioxide removal needs identified by IPCC and the National Academies – and, therefore, have a chance to safely stabilize the climate.”

The letter to the House Select Committee was also signed by Representatives Connor Lamb (PA-17) and Kendra Horn (OK-5).  The full text of letter can be found here.