At the hearing, US Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Ranking Member of the Committee, expressed his support for investments in emission reducing technologies, in order to address the global climate challenge.
Technologies discussed included technological and natural carbon removal, carbon utilisation and carbon storage.
Ranking Member Manchin, said, “CO2 emissions are not just coming from the power sector. In fact, in 2018, transportation accounted for 28% of US greenhouse gas emissions, while power generation accounted for 27%, industry 22%, commercial and residential 13%, and agriculture 10%.”
“Those figures make it clear we can’t just be focused on the electric sector and power plants; we need to be thinking more broadly and finding solutions across all of these sectors.”
“Concepts like carbon removal include technologies that can capture CO2 from power plants, but they also include technologies that capture CO2 right out of the ambient air and engineered natural processes, like mineralisation.”
“Direct air capture technology, once matured, will be able to be deployed anywhere and CO2 removal will help offset the emissions from all of the sectors I just mentioned. It’s a necessary complement to the work being done to reduce emissions across the board.”