Is Wyoming’s Federal Carbon Capture Funding In Jepordy?

The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday canceled $3.7 billion in awards from its Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, including $540 million in grants for two carbon capture projects planned by Calpine.

The canceled awards were mainly for carbon capture and sequestration and other decarbonization projects, according to DOE. Affected companies include PPL Corp., Ørsted and Exxon Mobil Corp.

The Calpine grants were for CCS projects at its 550-MW gas-fired Sutter power plant in Yuba City, California, and its 810-MW Baytown power plant in Baytown, Texas. (Utility Drive).

With projects like this being canceled around the nation by the Trump administration, that question has to be asked about what that would mean for Wyoming's carbon capture projects.

“After a thorough and individualized financial review of each award, the DOE found that these projects failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars,” DOE said.

Sixteen of the 24 have been terminated so far.

The department said it is reviewing 179 awards that total over $15 billion in financial assistance.

“DOE is prioritizing large-scale commercial projects that require more detailed information from the awardees for the initial phase of this review, but this process may extend to other DOE program offices as the reviews progress,” the department said.

Wyoming is actively pursuing multiple carbon capture projects, including Project Bison and other CarbonSAFE initiatives.

Project Bison, a partnership between CarbonCapture Inc. and Frontier Carbon Solutions, aimed to remove 5 million tons of CO2 annually by 2030, but its development has been paused.

Additionally, Wyoming has several other carbon capture and storage projects, including those supported by the CarbonSAFE Initiative.

The entire process of carbon capture is considered a failure and a waste of time and money by the Trump administration.

What impact will there be on the projects if the federal money is canceled?