The Trump administration has canceled awards for nearly half of the 21 federally supported megaprojects that seek to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — a major setback for a direct air capture industry that rode a wave of bipartisan support during the Biden era.
Ten direct air capture hub projects collectively lost nearly $47.4 million, according to an analysis by POLITICO’s E&E News. The projects — seven of which were intended for Democratic-led states — were included on a spreadsheet of canceled awards that the Department of Energy provided to lawmakers Thursday. The agency is terminating more than $7.5 billion in funding for energy projects amid a congressional funding standoff that has led to a government shutdown.
Although the direct air capture funding cuts are relatively small, they’re likely to doom the projects and have an out-sized impact on the industry, according to Erin Burns, the executive director of the climate advocacy group Carbon180.
“This is a huge hit to not just these projects but to direct air capture” as an emerging industry, she said in an interview. The move also “really undermines the advantage that the United States has with this energy innovation ecosystem.”
