July 13, 2017

Manchin Calls on Senate Colleagues to Pass the FUTURE Act

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined his colleagues in a colloquy on the Senate Floor to discuss the importance of the FUTURE Act, which would reform, enhance, and expand upon the current 45Q tax credit provision for carbon capture technology.  

“Coal is abundant and reliable and will be a part of our energy mix for years to come.  We must invest in the future of coal to ensure the U.S. is a leader in commercializing cutting-edge technologies and to ensure a cleaner more secure energy future for our nation.  This bill will provide greater certainty for CCUS project developers and will help us continue to remove CO2 and CO emissions from the environment,” Senator Manchin said.

To watch a video of Senator Manchin’s remarks, click here.

Senator Manchin joined Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who are original cosponsors of the FUTURE Act. The FUTURE Act would more fully incorporate utilization – beyond just EOR – and direct air capture as critical components of developing carbon capture projects and technologies that will contribute to greatly reducing CO2 and CO emissions and creating products of usable value – both in the U.S. and globally. The new tax credit would:

  • Qualify new facilities for the credit if they “commence construction” within 7 years of the date of enactment.
  • Allow qualified taxpayers to claim the credit for 12 years.
  • Increase the value of the credit to $35 per metric ton and increase it annually to $50 per metric ton.  (Other utilization technologies beyond EOR could also qualify for the credit.)
  • Create different capture thresholds for power plants, industrial facilities, and pilot projects.
  • Keep in place the 75 million ton cap and current credit levels for projects that are already using the credit.
  • Authorizing transferability of the credit (the credit initially goes to the entity that owns the capture equipment and captures the CO2 from the facility).

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