42 U.S.C. § 16293 — Carbon storage validation and testing

(a) Definitions. (1) "Large-scale carbon sequestration" means storage that shows carbon dioxide can be injected into and held in underground rock formations, with a goal of storing at least 50 million metric tons. (2) "Program" means the program created in subsection (b).

(b) Carbon storage program. (1) The Secretary^* must set up a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercialization for storing carbon underground. (2) This must include: (A) mapping U.S. underground storage capacity with other agencies; (B) developing tools to predict and track how much carbon dioxide stays contained; (C) researching health, safety, and environmental risks if carbon dioxide leaks, and how to respond; (D) studying how carbon dioxide interacts with underground rock and fluid, including whether injecting it could trigger earthquakes; (E) assessing and ensuring safety of storage operations; (F) tracking what happens to carbon dioxide during and after injection; (G) assessing the economic viability of these technologies; (H) sharing information with the EPA, states, local and tribal governments to protect health and the environment; and (I) figuring out how much storage capacity will be needed, where, and when, and building strategies to deploy it. (3) The Secretary must study a range of underground sites, including active and depleted oil and gas fields, residual oil zones, unconventional rock formations, unmineable coal seams, saline formations, geothermal-related rock systems, and formations where carbon dioxide can mineralize in place.

(c) Large-scale demonstration program. (1) The Secretary must fund demonstration projects that test the cost and feasibility of large-scale commercial carbon storage. (2) The Secretary may give extra funding to existing regional partnerships already running such projects. (3) Each project^* must include long-term tests of injecting, monitoring, controlling, and verifying stored carbon dioxide. (4) The National Energy Technology Laboratory acts as a clearinghouse for information from these projects. (5) Within one year of December 27, 2020, the Secretary must report to Congress assessing partnerships' progress, identifying remaining barriers to safe large-scale storage, and mapping out storage research priorities through 2025.

(d) Moving to integrated storage. (1) The Secretary may turn demonstration projects into full commercial storage complexes. (2) In doing so, the goals are to find storage sites that can accept large, commercially useful volumes of carbon dioxide, understand whether storage is technically and commercially viable, and do whatever else is needed to make that transition.

(e) Commercial-scale storage program. (1) The Secretary must fund new or expanded commercial carbon storage projects and the pipelines that connect to them, covering feasibility studies, site evaluation, permitting, and construction. (2) Entities apply as the Secretary directs; the application process must be open at any project stage and designed to move quickly. In choosing projects, the Secretary must prioritize those with large storage capacity or those that will store carbon dioxide captured from multiple facilities.

(f) Preference for strong proposals. In competitive awards under this section, the Secretary must favor proposals from partnerships of industry, universities, and government, and must require that construction workers on these projects be paid prevailing local wages, under the usual Davis-Bacon-style wage rules.

(g) Cost sharing. Activities under this section follow the cost-sharing^* rules in another section.

(h) Funding. Congress authorizes $2,500,000,000 for this section, for fiscal years 2022 through 2026.