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Released June 02, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Many types of carbon dioxide reduction (CDR) programs and processes have been under attack from the Trump administration, shown in part by the president's April 8 executive order to overturn state and regional laws mandating reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions because they impede the achievement of his "energy dominance" agenda. But the 125 people who attended last month's second "Carbon Management Americas Conference 2025" event, sponsored by S&P Global, showed no sign of relinquishing their drive to limit CO2 emissions, using technology, nature, financial markets and determined innovation.
As if to underscore the pressures under which CDR currently is laboring, two weeks after the S&P Global conference, on May 30, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it was terminating 24 carbon-reduction awards totaling over $3.7 billion. Sixteen of the 24 awards were signed between Election Day and January 20, the start of the second Trump administration, the DOE said. It added that the terminated project awards primarily include funding for carbon capture, use and sequestration (CCUS) as well as other decarbonization initiatives.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright asserted that the Biden administration "failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars." But "the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment."
In the U.S., Industrial Info is tracking 26 carbon capture-related projects, worth $27 billion, that have been cancelled or put on hold since the start of this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence Project Database can click here for the project reports.
The S&P Global conference, "Carbon Management Americas 2025," held in Denver May 13-15, focused on developments within the CDR industry. "CDR" is a big-tent term that refers to a wide range of efforts to reduce or remove CO2 in the atmosphere and possibly turn it into something useful. Broadly speaking, it consists of two categories: "engineered" solutions, such as CCUS, direct air capture (DAC) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR); and "nature-based" solutions, such as better forestry management practices, production of biofuels such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), soil carbon sequestration, and biochar, where organic matter is heated without oxygen to create a carbon sink that keeps CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Clean energy projects such as renewable electric generation and battery energy storage systems (BESS) could be considered part of CDR, or possibly CDR-adjacent, because they are distinct project categories whose benefits extend beyond reducing or removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Some also might consider fuel switching to less carbon-intensive fuels, such as coal to gas, as part of CDR or CDR-adjacent, though some in the CDR community might challenge that.
S&P Global conference chair Anne Robba said, "We have seen a significant shift in carbon markets over the last year. Increased uncertainty at the federal level is creating new challenges for the industry. The Trump administration has made a substantial pivot to prioritize domestic fossil fuel production and reduce the role of climate, including doing away with the 'social cost of carbon' calculation" that had been added to projects seeking federal permits under the Obama and Biden administration. Robba directs cross energy transition team initiatives at S&P Global.
Beyond outright opposition from the second Trump administration, Robba said higher interest rates, and the president's on-again, off-again stance of tariffs, which has driven up uncertainty among business leaders, have made it more difficult for many sections of the CDR industry, including renewable power generation. Year to date, there has been an $8 billion withdrawal of investment in renewables, which is about three times what it was during 2022-2024, during the Biden era, she said. Still, she noted a "surprising" gain of 131% in U.S. onshore wind generation in the first quarter of 2025 versus the comparable year-earlier quarter.
In a poll of the 125 attendees at the S&P Global conference, 69% said they expected corporate and private investors, not government, would be the actors best positioned to lead the carbon reduction industry over the next two to three years. In a second audience poll, about 50% said they expected to see "modest" growth in voluntary and compliance carbon markets in the near future, despite current uncertainties.
"The CDR industry is showing persistence in the face of uncertainties," Robba said in a conference-floor interview.
Several speakers at the event said fossil fuels and CDR were inextricably linked. "Long-term, we need carbon," Michael Resch, a specialist in bioconversion technologies at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, told attendees.
In addition to its use in enhanced oil recovery, carbon is used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, such as textiles, plastics, chemicals, drugs and food. But CO2 is not found at high enough concentrations in the air: it must be captured, purified, concentrated and transported to be used to make those products.
But the CDR industry, Resch continued, "is a very fragmented one, and the federal government under President Donald Trump is not interested in trying to create a carbon management industry."
In fact, several speakers told attendees, the president is actively working to kill the parts of the CDR industry he doesn't like.
Conference speakers and attendees pointed to an April 8 presidential executive order, "Protecting American Energy From State Overreach," which targeted mandatory carbon reduction efforts such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) for 11 states in the Eastern U.S. as well as California's carbon-reduction mandate. The order also took aim at state laws that impeded his "energy dominance" vision, asserting they impede the economic and national security of the U.S.
Conference attendees worried that this executive order could have negative spillover effects on "voluntary" CDR activities, such as the buying and selling of renewable energy credits in private transactions, that exist alongside "mandatory" carbon-reduction markets, such as California or the 11 states that make up the RGGI.
"Many states have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated 'climate change' or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security," the April 8 executive order stated. "New York, for example, enacted a 'climate change' extortion law that seeks to retroactively impose billions in fines (erroneously labelled 'compensatory payments') on traditional energy producers for their purported past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions not only in New York but also anywhere in the United States and the world. Vermont similarly extorts energy producers for alleged past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the United States or the globe."
"These state laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration's objective to unleash American energy," the April 8 order continued. "They should not stand. The attorney general shall prioritize the identification of any such state laws purporting to address 'climate change' or involving 'environmental, social, and governance' (ESG) initiatives, 'environmental justice,' carbon or 'greenhouse gas' emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes."
The order directed the attorney general to lead an interdepartmental effort to identify state laws and actions as well as regulations that "burden the identification, development, siting, production or use of domestic energy resources that are or may be unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable." The attorney general is expected to deliver her report this month.
Trump appears to look more favorably on "engineered" CDR solutions such as CCUS, EOR and DAC compared to "nature-based" solutions or renewable electric generation. The House of Representatives' "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" kept the Section 45Q tax credits for CCUS, which grants CCUS owners a tax credit of $85 per ton of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Under section 45Q, eligible CCUS projects that begin construction before January 1, 2033, can claim the credit for up to 12 years after being placed in service.
Several fossil fuel companies that supported Trump's presidential campaign, such as ExxonMobil Corporation (Spring, Texas) and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Houston, Texas), have invested heavily over the years in engineered solutions to remove, use, transport or store CO2 emissions.
It was also unclear if tax credits for "engineered" CDR solutions will make it through the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives approved by one vote the 1,000-page-plus tax and budget reconciliation bill May 22. That bill's fate will depend on the Senate adopting identical bill, which is unlikely, or the two legislative chambers coming to an agreement in a conference committee to reconcile different versions of the tax and budget package.
Various objections to the House-passed measure have been voiced by GOP members of the Senate, some from the party's center and some from its right. All Democratic senators are expected to vote against it, which means Senate Republicans can only lose a handful of members if the measure is to pass.
The senators are most divided over proposed changes to Medicaid, reductions in food assistance and the bill's impact on the deficit, though division over the fate of clean-energy tax credits also separates Senate Republicans.
Industrial Info is tracking approximately 230 proposed CCUS projects in the U.S. valued at approximately $129.6 billion. Of that sum, 35 planned projects with total investment value (TIV) of $11.9 billion, are deemed by Industrial Info to have a "high" probability of beginning construction according to their schedules. A further 105 future CCUS projects worth about $42.4 billion have a "medium" probability of keeping their schedule. These proposed projects include facilities in a variety of industries, including: Chemical Processing; Electric Power; Metals & Minerals; Oil and Gas Pipelines; Pulp, Paper & Wood; Oil & Gas Production; and Oil & Gas Terminals.
Subscribers can click here to view the project reports.
The states with the largest dollar value of proposed CCUS projects with a "high" or "medium" probability include Louisiana, Texas, West Virginia, California and North Dakota.
Click on the image at right to see the U.S. states with the largest dollar value of proposed CCUS projects.
Even if the 45Q tax credit stays in place, speakers at the S&P Global conference agreed that $85 per ton was not enough, on its own, to make CCUS projects economically viable.
"Section 45Q credits at $85 per ton will not get you there on their own," said Curt Graham, senior vice president in the Office of Technology for Fluor Corporation (Irving, Texas). "Our technology has cut CCUS' energy consumption by 30% over the last few years, but the opportunity for a breakthrough in the technology by 2030 is small. There are a lot of obstacles in going from the lab to a pilot to full commercial deployment."
Specifically, Graham said, technology, cost, and policy risks were the main impediments to near-term commercialization of CCUS technology. CCUS projects that move forward will do so because they have stacked other benefits on top of the tax credits and the capture, use or sequestration of carbon, he predicted. Still, Graham added, "not doing CCUS is an enormous opportunity wasted to remove carbon from the atmosphere."
NREL's Resch commented, "putting carbon in the ground may be the best near-term goal" for those in the CDR business.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
As if to underscore the pressures under which CDR currently is laboring, two weeks after the S&P Global conference, on May 30, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it was terminating 24 carbon-reduction awards totaling over $3.7 billion. Sixteen of the 24 awards were signed between Election Day and January 20, the start of the second Trump administration, the DOE said. It added that the terminated project awards primarily include funding for carbon capture, use and sequestration (CCUS) as well as other decarbonization initiatives.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright asserted that the Biden administration "failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars." But "the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment."
In the U.S., Industrial Info is tracking 26 carbon capture-related projects, worth $27 billion, that have been cancelled or put on hold since the start of this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence Project Database can click here for the project reports.
The S&P Global conference, "Carbon Management Americas 2025," held in Denver May 13-15, focused on developments within the CDR industry. "CDR" is a big-tent term that refers to a wide range of efforts to reduce or remove CO2 in the atmosphere and possibly turn it into something useful. Broadly speaking, it consists of two categories: "engineered" solutions, such as CCUS, direct air capture (DAC) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR); and "nature-based" solutions, such as better forestry management practices, production of biofuels such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), soil carbon sequestration, and biochar, where organic matter is heated without oxygen to create a carbon sink that keeps CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Clean energy projects such as renewable electric generation and battery energy storage systems (BESS) could be considered part of CDR, or possibly CDR-adjacent, because they are distinct project categories whose benefits extend beyond reducing or removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Some also might consider fuel switching to less carbon-intensive fuels, such as coal to gas, as part of CDR or CDR-adjacent, though some in the CDR community might challenge that.
S&P Global conference chair Anne Robba said, "We have seen a significant shift in carbon markets over the last year. Increased uncertainty at the federal level is creating new challenges for the industry. The Trump administration has made a substantial pivot to prioritize domestic fossil fuel production and reduce the role of climate, including doing away with the 'social cost of carbon' calculation" that had been added to projects seeking federal permits under the Obama and Biden administration. Robba directs cross energy transition team initiatives at S&P Global.
Beyond outright opposition from the second Trump administration, Robba said higher interest rates, and the president's on-again, off-again stance of tariffs, which has driven up uncertainty among business leaders, have made it more difficult for many sections of the CDR industry, including renewable power generation. Year to date, there has been an $8 billion withdrawal of investment in renewables, which is about three times what it was during 2022-2024, during the Biden era, she said. Still, she noted a "surprising" gain of 131% in U.S. onshore wind generation in the first quarter of 2025 versus the comparable year-earlier quarter.
In a poll of the 125 attendees at the S&P Global conference, 69% said they expected corporate and private investors, not government, would be the actors best positioned to lead the carbon reduction industry over the next two to three years. In a second audience poll, about 50% said they expected to see "modest" growth in voluntary and compliance carbon markets in the near future, despite current uncertainties.
"The CDR industry is showing persistence in the face of uncertainties," Robba said in a conference-floor interview.
Several speakers at the event said fossil fuels and CDR were inextricably linked. "Long-term, we need carbon," Michael Resch, a specialist in bioconversion technologies at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, told attendees.
In addition to its use in enhanced oil recovery, carbon is used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, such as textiles, plastics, chemicals, drugs and food. But CO2 is not found at high enough concentrations in the air: it must be captured, purified, concentrated and transported to be used to make those products.
But the CDR industry, Resch continued, "is a very fragmented one, and the federal government under President Donald Trump is not interested in trying to create a carbon management industry."
In fact, several speakers told attendees, the president is actively working to kill the parts of the CDR industry he doesn't like.
Conference speakers and attendees pointed to an April 8 presidential executive order, "Protecting American Energy From State Overreach," which targeted mandatory carbon reduction efforts such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) for 11 states in the Eastern U.S. as well as California's carbon-reduction mandate. The order also took aim at state laws that impeded his "energy dominance" vision, asserting they impede the economic and national security of the U.S.
Conference attendees worried that this executive order could have negative spillover effects on "voluntary" CDR activities, such as the buying and selling of renewable energy credits in private transactions, that exist alongside "mandatory" carbon-reduction markets, such as California or the 11 states that make up the RGGI.
"Many states have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated 'climate change' or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security," the April 8 executive order stated. "New York, for example, enacted a 'climate change' extortion law that seeks to retroactively impose billions in fines (erroneously labelled 'compensatory payments') on traditional energy producers for their purported past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions not only in New York but also anywhere in the United States and the world. Vermont similarly extorts energy producers for alleged past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the United States or the globe."
"These state laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration's objective to unleash American energy," the April 8 order continued. "They should not stand. The attorney general shall prioritize the identification of any such state laws purporting to address 'climate change' or involving 'environmental, social, and governance' (ESG) initiatives, 'environmental justice,' carbon or 'greenhouse gas' emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes."
The order directed the attorney general to lead an interdepartmental effort to identify state laws and actions as well as regulations that "burden the identification, development, siting, production or use of domestic energy resources that are or may be unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable." The attorney general is expected to deliver her report this month.
Trump appears to look more favorably on "engineered" CDR solutions such as CCUS, EOR and DAC compared to "nature-based" solutions or renewable electric generation. The House of Representatives' "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" kept the Section 45Q tax credits for CCUS, which grants CCUS owners a tax credit of $85 per ton of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Under section 45Q, eligible CCUS projects that begin construction before January 1, 2033, can claim the credit for up to 12 years after being placed in service.
Several fossil fuel companies that supported Trump's presidential campaign, such as ExxonMobil Corporation (Spring, Texas) and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Houston, Texas), have invested heavily over the years in engineered solutions to remove, use, transport or store CO2 emissions.
It was also unclear if tax credits for "engineered" CDR solutions will make it through the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives approved by one vote the 1,000-page-plus tax and budget reconciliation bill May 22. That bill's fate will depend on the Senate adopting identical bill, which is unlikely, or the two legislative chambers coming to an agreement in a conference committee to reconcile different versions of the tax and budget package.
Various objections to the House-passed measure have been voiced by GOP members of the Senate, some from the party's center and some from its right. All Democratic senators are expected to vote against it, which means Senate Republicans can only lose a handful of members if the measure is to pass.
The senators are most divided over proposed changes to Medicaid, reductions in food assistance and the bill's impact on the deficit, though division over the fate of clean-energy tax credits also separates Senate Republicans.
Industrial Info is tracking approximately 230 proposed CCUS projects in the U.S. valued at approximately $129.6 billion. Of that sum, 35 planned projects with total investment value (TIV) of $11.9 billion, are deemed by Industrial Info to have a "high" probability of beginning construction according to their schedules. A further 105 future CCUS projects worth about $42.4 billion have a "medium" probability of keeping their schedule. These proposed projects include facilities in a variety of industries, including: Chemical Processing; Electric Power; Metals & Minerals; Oil and Gas Pipelines; Pulp, Paper & Wood; Oil & Gas Production; and Oil & Gas Terminals.
Subscribers can click here to view the project reports.
The states with the largest dollar value of proposed CCUS projects with a "high" or "medium" probability include Louisiana, Texas, West Virginia, California and North Dakota.
Even if the 45Q tax credit stays in place, speakers at the S&P Global conference agreed that $85 per ton was not enough, on its own, to make CCUS projects economically viable.
"Section 45Q credits at $85 per ton will not get you there on their own," said Curt Graham, senior vice president in the Office of Technology for Fluor Corporation (Irving, Texas). "Our technology has cut CCUS' energy consumption by 30% over the last few years, but the opportunity for a breakthrough in the technology by 2030 is small. There are a lot of obstacles in going from the lab to a pilot to full commercial deployment."
Specifically, Graham said, technology, cost, and policy risks were the main impediments to near-term commercialization of CCUS technology. CCUS projects that move forward will do so because they have stacked other benefits on top of the tax credits and the capture, use or sequestration of carbon, he predicted. Still, Graham added, "not doing CCUS is an enormous opportunity wasted to remove carbon from the atmosphere."
NREL's Resch commented, "putting carbon in the ground may be the best near-term goal" for those in the CDR business.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
