State Policymakers Can Enact Real Change by Enabling Carbon Dioxide Removal
States have unique power to develop carbon dioxide removal (CDR) efforts, our State CDR Atlas shows them where to start.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is vital to avoid climate tipping points, according to the best available science, and US states play a central role in scaling this tool. CDR is a rapidly growing industry that investors, governments, and local coalitions are beginning to funnel money, time, and effort into scaling. Beyond climate goals, CDR also has the opportunity to unlock huge economic benefits such as job and wealth creation for communities and other co-benefits.
US states play a central role in developing CDR for several reasons. To start, CDR is not a monolith. RMI has identified a range of CDR approaches that vary in land, energy, water, and feedstock requirements. Because of this diversity, US states can take advantage of their unique geographies, infrastructure, and resources to scale the CDR approaches they are best suited for. States also have unique regulatory authority when siting infrastructure, clarifying permitting, and getting projects off the ground and can often move more quickly than the federal government when developing infrastructure.
State policymakers hold tremendous power in furthering CDR, but learning about all the varied CDR approaches, determining which approach might be best suited in a state, and deciding which policy can best enable this CDR can be overwhelming. To help state-level stakeholders start to explore the unique opportunities for CDR in their state, RMI has developed the State CDR Atlas (“The Atlas”).
What is the State CDR Atlas?
The Atlas is a screening tool that gives users insights into the policy and regulatory environment that can support CDR and the opportunity states have across eight categories of CDR approaches. It compiles data from over 80 metrics that cover a variety of state characteristics: infrastructure, natural resources, workforce, governance, policies, regulations, and others.
The Atlas provides two ratings to each of 8 CDR Approach Categories for each of the 50 states: The Opportunity Rating highlights the existing opportunity a state might have to do CDR based on natural resources, existing infrastructure, workforce, and other pre-existing qualities of a state. The Enabling Policy Rating highlights whether the current policy and regulatory landscape of a state is ready to facilitate safe, supported CDR deployment.
State policymakers, CDR companies, and other actors in a state can use the Atlas to start exploring what types of CDR may be most promising based on their state profile. Users can explore state-level deep dives for each of the 50 states, CDR approach-level deep dives for each of the 8 Approach Categories, and policy case studies that include policy options that will help create a safe enabling environment for specific CDR approaches or CDR more broadly across topics like climate governance, supply and demand, community engagement, environmental justice, and carbon management regulations.
In addition to the high-level ratings described above, the Atlas will be home to a library of resources to help states identify next steps and go deeper in areas where their state has potential. Rather than being a standalone tool, the Atlas is intended to help users orient themselves to the opportunity for CDR in their state and prioritize next steps. It should not be used in formal siting decisions, to disqualify a type of CDR from consideration in a state, or to bypass any of the important work needed to design and deploy projects that are safe and supported by host communities.
To showcase how to use the Atlas, we have provided some example case studies below.
State Case Study – Virginia
Virginia
Virginia receives high ratings for the opportunity to do Direct Ocean Capture, Ocean Geochemical CDR, Ocean Biomass CDR, and Bioenergy + CCS. (Find more details on these CDR Approach Categories on the Atlas webtool).
Virginia’s opportunity to do Direct Ocean Capture (DOC), or the stripping of dissolved CO2 from the ocean which creates a stream of CO2 that can be stored, can be further broken down into which Metric Categories are creating a high score and which might be lowering that score. Virginia has medium or high ratings for all metrics used in calculating a DOC rating except for CO2 infrastructure (existing infrastructure such as pipelines/wells in a state). It also scores slightly lower for its clean energy availability score, which is important because DOC projects are energy intensive. This level of detail is available for all 8 CDR Approach Categories in Virginia, including those the state received high ratings or low ratings for.
To go a level deeper, a user can zoom in to each of these Metric Categories, by accessing the underlying data for the Atlas, to see which specific metrics are contributing to a low or high rating. Clean energy availability is an interesting metric for Virginia and the graphic above shows what is causing the medium rating.
This table shows that the current percent generation in renewables in Virginia as well as the renewable generation potential both receive low ratings when compared to the rest of the 50 states. For even more detail, users have access to our Methodology Deck which outlines sources, ratings of data, and how we weight up to the larger clean energy availability Metric Category.
On the policy and regulations side, Virginia receives the following ratings.
In short, Virginia is lagging when it comes to CDR supply and demand policy. The state does not have government procurement programs, grants, or compliance mechanisms that can be used for CDR. For Virginia policymakers to catalyze a CDR industry in their state, they should consider implementing policies to spur supply and demand for CDR. Policymakers, while using the Atlas, can also determine which specific data points are holding them back for the remainder of the enabling categories.
CDR Approach Case Study – Terrestrial Enhanced Weathering (TEW)
Users can also choose to do a deep dive on a CDR Approach Category rather than an individual state. Below, we show the opportunity for the 50 states to do terrestrial enhanced weathering (TEW), or the addition of alkaline minerals to agricultural, urban, or forest soils, which then react with CO2 and water to store carbon as dissolved inorganic carbon.
This map shows general trends in which states have high, medium, or low opportunity to do terrestrial enhanced weathering, based on farmland coverage in a state, mineral availability, relevant workforce, and existing HQs and projects. Although these projects can occur on a variety of soil, the Atlas focuses on farmland because of momentum in the space to partner with farmers and use this CDR method as a tool for soil pH management. In general, states are particularly well suited to do TEW if they have large amounts of relevant farmland and if they have a ready source for alkaline minerals. However, if a state does not have one or the other, this does not mean TEW projects should be ruled out.
To create an enabling environment for TEW, policymakers should consider funding research that will help them set safety standards around TEW projects. Furthermore, policymakers can create incentives for farmers to use TEW as a climate-smart practice or prioritize funding through the USDA to enable these projects. If users are interested in taking a deeper dive on what TEW is, what factors influence these ratings, and what policy is needed to incentivize these projects, they can visit the TEW page in The Atlas.
Conclusion
The Atlas helps give a clear understanding of each state’s potential for CDR in a number of areas, but more steps are necessary. Once state policymakers have explored what approaches may be best suited for their states and what policies and regulations will help enable those approaches, they should further research the possibility to do CDR in their states and what specific policy gaps they can fill to enable different CDR approaches. Lastly, for guidance on how to create state CDR policy that is focused on efficiently creating safe, supported CDR, policymakers should look to RMI’s upcoming blog on State CDR Policy Principles.