Hundreds of Leading Environmental Groups to Congress: Want to Cut Wasteful Spending? Start With CCS Subsidies

February 10, 2025
By Acadia Strategies

Washington—Today, hundreds of environmental groups from across the country sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee leadership urging legislators to repeal the carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) tax credit in the upcoming tax bill. The tax credit, known as 45Q, wastes billions in taxpayer money, endangers public safety, and props up a fundamentally flawed and unreliable technology, they write. 

“We urge you to act decisively in the upcoming reconciliation package by repealing 45Q and other CCS subsidies,” reads the letter. “The American people deserve a government that prioritizes their well-being and financial security. Let us move forward together toward a future that reflects our shared values of fiscal responsibility and public safety.”

The letter is part of a swell of calls for the elimination of CCS tax credits amidst the federal government’s quest to cut spending and identify wasteful government programs. Estimates for the cost of the 45Q program range in the tens of billions of dollars over the next ten years, despite projects running wildly over budget and failing to meet their goals for removing carbon from the atmosphere. 

As the letter lays out, it’s also disastrous for community safety as well. Just last week, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a civil penalty of $2,366,900 to both Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines and Republic Republic Testing Laboratories for preventing the agency from inspecting the site of a leak in their pipeline near Satartia, Mississippi that sent 45 people to the hospital in 2020. 

“From the Midwest to the Gulf Coast, communities across the country are rising up to oppose the carbon capture industry’s reckless expansion of dangerous pipelines and injection wells,” said Jim Walsh, Policy Director, Food & Water Watch. “These projects put families at risk of toxic leaks, threaten drinking water and trample on local communities — all while funneling billions in taxpayer money to enrich corporate polluters. We must stop these wasteful subsidies before more communities are put in harm’s way.”

“Unsound and unwanted carbon capture projects are being forced upon communities across the country for the sole purpose of lining the pockets of wealthy investors with our public tax dollars. When rising inflation has left the rest of the country struggling to get by, the carbon capture industry is lavishing in our public money. Our tax dollars need to be put to work for the benefit of the people, not used as part of another get-rich-quick scheme from Big Oil,” said Emma Schmit, Pipeline Fighters Director at Bold Alliance.

“Corporations have used carbon capture projects to abuse a lucrative tax program and then fail to meet their promises,” said the Alliance for Affordable Energy's Logan Burke. “If they’re serious about their intentions to cut waste, the federal government should make an example of the 45Q program.”

“After three years of dealing with a bad-faith company chasing these tax credits, South Dakotans see the 45Q tax credit program for what it is - a scam,” said Dakota Rural’s Chase Jensen. “South Dakota’s land and communities shouldn’t be forced into unproven and unnecessary projects simply because the federal government is handing out billions of tax dollars to opportunistic corporations.”

“Here in Illinois, we’ve seen first hand how these projects threaten rural, aquifer communities and our safe drinking water,” said the Eco-Justice Collaborative’s Pam Richart. “Carbon capture projects actively make us all less safe and the government shouldn’t be in the business of subsidizing threats to our communities.”

To read the whole letter and see the complete list of signers, you can click here.