1. House Republicans roll out plan to beat China and Russia; Part 2 of House GOP energy, climate strategy

  

The House Republican Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force rolled out the second part of its six-part energy policy strategy: Beat China and Russia.

Earlier this month, the Task Force, chaired by Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), released the first part of their strategy for energy and climate policy — Unlock American Resources. The final four parts will be coming soon, consisting of six pillars:

• Unlock American Resources
• Beat China and Russia
• American Innovation
• Let America Build
• Conservation with a Purpose
• Build Resilient Communities

What’s clear: Republicans have a comprehensive plan to address the climate challenge, and a big part of that is recognizing the need to establish a domestic energy supply chain rather than relying on foreign adversaries.

Plug in: Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) highlights comments from Rep. Graves from an appearance on Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s (R-TX) podcast, explaining why America cannot rely on Russia and China for necessary energy resources.
 

2. Bipartisan CREST Act accelerates CO2 removal

  

A new bipartisan bill, the Carbon Removal and Emissions Storage Technologies (CREST) Act, would authorize more R&D for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and sequestration technologies.

The CREST Act, introduced by U.S. Sens. Collins (R-ME) and Cantwell (D-WA) would:

• Build on RD&D investments authorized in the Energy Act of 2020;
• Launch a first-of-a-kind pilot program to accelerate the commercialization; and
• Create a grant program for economic and life-cycle assessments.

What’s clear: “CDR is one of the most promising clean technologies for removing carbon already in our atmosphere and affordably reducing emissions across the global economy,” said ClearPath Action CEO Rich Powell.

Plug in: ClearPath supports the CREST Act and has a summary of the legislation here. We look forward to potential introduction in the House.
 

3. Removing CO2 from the Atmosphere

 

With private and public sector entities setting ambitious emissions reduction goals, companies are scrambling to invest in quantifiable, durable, and verifiable CDR solutions.

• Private sector investments in CDR soared in 2021, but that is not enough on its own to facilitate the RD&D necessary for success.
• Historically, the federal government has played a key role in scaling new technologies like CDR through public-private partnerships.

Legislation like the CREST Act would create a path toward diversifying CDR and storage research programs at DOE and establish a pilot program to purchase CDR solutions and accelerate their deployment and market commercialization.

Plug in: We recently hosted an educational briefing on the importance of adding CDR to the climate solutions toolkit. Read more from ClearPath Policy Analyst Savita Bowman in a new blog post.
 

4. Natural gas power with fewer emissions

 

Clean energy startup NET Power operates a first-of-its-kind carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration plant in La Porte, TX, that, if scaled, could provide clean power across the Texas energy grid.
 
America needs 24/7/365 clean power. Solutions that generate power with natural gas while capturing their own emissions allows reliable and affordable fossil fuels to remain on the grid with a lower climate impact.

NET Power’s CCS technology can have a variety of applications:

• Energy company G2 Net-Zero has proposed a Louisiana project that would produce hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other products; and
• Belgian energy provider TES plans to incorporate the technology as part of a hydrogen storage and generation system.
• Clean tech company 8 Rivers is using NET Power technology to build natural gas plants in Colorado and Illinois.

Plug in: Last month, ClearPath hosted a delegation of House Republicans to NET Power’s CCS demonstration plant in La Porte – check out the recap here.
 

5. ICYMI

• Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Chief Strategy Officer Brian Wolff facilitated a conversation with ClearPath CEO Rich Powell, Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office Director Jigar Shah, and Ameren CEO Warner Baxter. They discussed clean energy innovation policy, IIJA implementation and tax policy on stage at EEI’s annual meeting in Orlando .