The Trump administration is focused on how to use carbon capture technology for manufacturing and oil production rather than just geologic storage of the greenhouse gas, a Department of Energy official said Tuesday.
“We’re focused on carbon utilization, not sequestration,” said Kyle Haustveit, assistant secretary for DOE’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office, speaking with reporters on the sidelines at the United States Energy Association’s Energy Policy Forum in Washington.
The focus on utilization of carbon dioxide illustrates how the Trump administration views carbon capture, use and storage — a suite of technologies seen as key to addressing emissions from a range of sectors, including heavy industry and the power sector. The Trump administration’s emphasis on putting CO2 to work is in alignment with the White House’s energy dominance goals, as CO2 can be used as a raw ingredient for some manufactured goods or injected into oil fields.
CO2 should be thought of as a resource — not a nuisance — because the gas has a lot of “incredible, beneficial uses,” Haustveit said on stage at the event. Haustveit cheered that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, “levelized the playing field” between use and geologic storage of CO2.
