Shell backs carbon removal hub at dawn of Trump era

By Corbin Hiar | 01/22/2025 06:10 AM EST

The oil giant joined Mitsubishi in financially supporting a tech startup that plans to pull climate pollution from the sky above Louisiana.

An airplane is seen in the sky behind a Shell oil sign.

The oil giant Shell is investing in a technology company that plans to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Shell and Mitsubishi have selected an Israeli startup to provide some of the carbon removal technology they hope to deploy at a direct air capture hub proposed for Louisiana — a plan that could be upended by the Trump administration.

RepAir Carbon would be one of three tech providers for the so-called Pelican-Gulf Coast Carbon Removal hub, according to Amir Shiner, the chief executive of RepAir. The Pelican consortium, which also includes Louisiana State University and the University of Houston, was one of 19 early-stage proposals that the Biden administration supported in the first round of its $3.5 billion DAC hub funding competition.

The consortium plans to compete for the Energy Department’s next batch of DAC hub awards and is confident the Trump administration will continue to support the emerging carbon removal industry, Shiner told POLITICO’s E&E News in an exclusive interview.

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“We’re very much used to operating against all kinds of various geopolitical headwinds, and we managed to deliver despite those headwinds,” he said. “We’re going to continue doing so.”

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