The Algae Biomass Organization, the trade association for the algae industry, formally submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to explicitly recognize the use of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies as an approved emissions reduction strategy under the agency's new power plant regulations. ABO's comments describe how encouraging the development of innovative technologies that use greenhouse gases to make valuable products can simultaneously reduce emissions and spur economic development.
"Clarifying the role that carbon utilization can play in the EPA's emissions rules would help unleash a wave of innovative technologies that can use greenhouse gases to manufacture more sustainable products, chemicals and fuels," said Matt Carr, executive director of the Algae Biomass Organization. "Algae cultivation is one technology that can consume greenhouse gases, lower the costs of compliance for emitters, and reduce demand for the crude oil we currently use to make many of the products we need for daily life."
ABO's comments include examples of how its members are currently deploying a number of technologies that can convert CO 2 captured from power generation into renewable fuels, chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, feed ingredients and other products. By creating a market for captured carbon, carbon utilization can mitigate, offset, or even negate the cost of carbon capture, providing a CO 2 reduction mechanism that minimizes the cost to industry or ratepayers.
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Download free sample pagesABO's submitted comments are part of an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about carbon utilization. That campaign has resulted in more than 130 letters to the EPA that specifically call for the agency to explicitly affirm that CCU is an accepted method for emissions reduction. Earlier this fall, ABO launched a "We the People" White House petition in support of CCU that attracted nearly 350 respondents from 45 states and 215 cities. Additionally, climate change legislation proposed in November by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) offered an exemption from fees for facilities that used CCU, further demonstrating the growing support for the approach among policy makers.
