WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee member, joined a bipartisan letter led by EPW Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Brenda Mallory regarding the status of CEQ’s implementation of the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) Act, legislation Senator Cramer helped introduce and pass which would support carbon utilization and direct air capture research.

“President Biden has recognized that reducing power sector emissions requires ‘leveraging the carbon pollution-free energy potential of power plants retrofitted with carbon capture,’” wrote the senators. “The ability to maximize the development of CCUS projects will require the creation of pipeline networks capable of transporting captured carbon dioxide to markets for commercial use or to reservoirs for permanent sequestration. A key barrier limiting CCUS project deployment has been the complicated maze of permitting requirements. Therefore, CEQ will play a pivotal role in implementing the law and removing barriers to encourage these innovative projects.”

In the letter, the senators note the USE IT Act requires the Chair of CEQ to convene various federal agencies and develop a report within 180 days of the bill’s enactment – which would be June 25, 2021 – to provide a review of the federal permitting process, including providing best practices and templates for more efficient permitting. CEQ is then directed to develop guidance consistent with the report’s findings.

“Given the broad, bipartisan support for enhanced deployment of CCUS technologies,” the senators conclude, “we request that CEQ provide a full accounting to Congress on CEQ’s progress in implementing the USE IT Act by June 10, 2021 and on an ongoing basis every three months thereafter.”

Last Congress, Senator Cramer and his EPW colleagues introduced this legislation in February 2019. Through his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Cramer was able to help secure its inclusion in the Senate’s version of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in June 2019. When that language was dropped in the final NDAA that year, Senator Cramer and his colleagues worked successfully to include it in the year-end appropriations package which passed in December 2020.

Senators Cramer and Capito are joined on the letter by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), John Barrasso (R-WY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), James Inhofe (R-OK), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Mike Rounds (R-SD), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).

Click here to read the letter.