CATF Statement on Release of IRS Guidance for 45Q Tax Credits for Carbon Capture Projects

Kurt Waltzer, Managing Director, Clean Air Task Force, has issued the following statement: “CATF welcomes the long-awaited IRS guidance on 45Q tax credits. With it, CCS developers can move ahead on projects with certainty as to how the credits will be administered.  As the IPCC has noted, large scale deployment of CCS is necessary to limit global warming.

“CATF strongly concurs with the decision by the IRS to completely reject the arguments of Energy Advance Center to require virtually no oversight to account for geologic storage in enhanced oil recovery projects.  This will ensure that EOR projects result in secure, verifiable storage of CO2.

“CATF also supports the alternative compliance pathway approach proposed by the IRS but notes that it needs to include some important additions related to transparency. The IRS has noted the importance of public transparency in the annual reporting of storage but indicates in the proposal that it does not have the statutory authority to apply it to the alternative pathway. CATF is evaluating that claim and potential remedies but agrees the same annual public reporting of storage that already exists under IRS rules also needs to apply to the proposed alternative standard.”