Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and five of his Senate colleagues introduced today the Carbon Capture and Utilization Act of 2016, a bill that will provide provide tax credit support for algae and other carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies that can convert greenhouse gas emissions into valuable products such as advanced biofuels, animal feed, fertilizer and chemical ingredients. The proposed language would add CCU technologies to section 45Q of the tax code, which already provides credits for the adoption of carbon capture and sequestration technologies.
The bill is expected to generate and incentivize new innovations to reduce emissions in the U.S. “Preventing the worst of climate change will mean deploying a broad range of technologies to reduce carbon emissions,” said Senator Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “This bill would provide a boost for entrepreneurs in Rhode Island and across the country who turn harmful carbon pollution into useful products. That incentive will spur economic growth and help protect our environment and public health.”
Of particular interest to the algae community are provisions in the bill that would allow smaller projects to qualify for the credit. This will be a significant boost for many projects that seek to demonstrate how cutting-edge algae cultivation technologies can be used to consume the CO2 from power plants for the production of valuable biomass, biofuels and other products.
To read the full announcement, visit http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-introduces-carbon-capture-and-utilization-bill