GOP climate leader pitches marine carbon removal as fossil fuel fix
A vice chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus is pushing for Congress to spend $165 million on efforts to increase the carbon-absorbing capacity of the world’s oceans.
Rep. Buddy Carter’s “Ocean Restoration Research and Development Act,” or H.R. 7797, offers a glimpse of how he and other Republicans might respond to rising temperatures if they win control of Congress or the White House in November. The idea, the Georgia Republican explained, is to shift the focus from weaning the world off oil, gas and coal to scaling up nascent technologies to clean up their emissions.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate: oceans
Related Knowledge Center: Carbon capture
The federal government is investing heavily in the development of carbon capture and storage (or sequestration), which offers the enticing prospect of preventing carbon dioxide emissions produced during combustion from entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. But the technologies involved, while proven, remain expensive, an obstacle to widespread adoption.