{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ranking-member-capito-opening-statement-at-hearing-on-industrial-decarbonization", "Ranking Member Capito Opening Statement at Hearing on Industrial Decarbonization", "2023-11-15", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "WV", "Shelley Moore Capito", "C001047", "www.capito.senate.gov", "capito", "https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here or the image above to watch Ranking Member Capito\u2019s opening remarks from the committee hearing.\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee held a hearing titled, \u201cOpportunities in Industrial Decarbonization: Delivering Benefits for the Economy and the Climate.\u201d\n\nBelow is the opening statement of Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) as delivered.\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman\u2026thank you for holding this hearing today to examine innovative bipartisan solutions to manage industrial greenhouse gas emissions.\n\n\u201cWe have achieved the greatest successes as a Committee, including on climate, which we have worked on a bipartisan basis.\n\n\u201cThe Committee\u2019s surface transportation and water infrastructure legislation served as the backbone of the IIJA.\n\n\u201cThe surface transportation portion of the IIJA included a first-of-a-kind subtitle devoted to climate change, featuring two new formula programs, one centered on carbon reduction and on resiliency.\n\n\u201cThe IIJA served as a vehicle for many other provisions from other committees to address emissions, including industrial emissions.\n\n\u201cChairman Carper and I managed that legislation across the floor and so we negotiated on these [provisions] as well.\n\n\u201cParticularly important to me\u2026the legislation included the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) program, administered by the DOE.\n\n\u201cOne of the seven hubs the DOE recently selected is the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, known as ARCH2.\n\n\u201cThis hub includes the states of West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.\n\n\u201cARCH2 will produce both green hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced through the electrolysis of water, but also blue hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced from abundant Appalachian natural gas with carbon capture and storage technologies to reduce emissions.\n\n\u201cWhen up and running, ARCH2 will supply hydrogen to a broad mix of hard-to-decarbonize industries, from energy to transportation to chemical manufacturing to steel production.\n\n\u201cIt is no secret that carbon capture, which will be a critical component of the ARCH2 hub, remains capital intensive and has yet to be commercially viable for deployment.\n\n\u201cChairman Carper, I appreciate your years-long partnership with me in supporting carbon capture as a technology.\n\n\u201cThis is why I have been a longtime supporter of 45Q to advance this technology that will be essential to preventing emissions, and through direct air capture, to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.\n\n\u201cARCH2 and all other future CCUS developments stand to benefit not only from 45Q, but also from prior bipartisan legislation out of this Committee, such as the USE IT Act, which Chairman Carper, and Senators Barrasso, Whitehouse and I led.\n\n\u201cSigned into law in 2020, the USE IT Act, when implemented as intended, would ensure all carbon capture projects at all types of facilities can be permitted in a timely fashion.\n\n\u201cI say \u2018when implemented as intended\u2019 because some of the administration\u2019s recent actions, suggest they are not dutifully looking to expedite the permitting of these types of projects.\n\n\u201cFor instance, for broad deployment of CCUS to become feasible, the EPA must approve Class VI injection well applications to securely store the carbon underground\u2026\n\n\u201cIn the IIJA, I supported the inclusion of $50 million for states to obtain primacy of this program, as well as $25 million for the EPA to process those permits at the federal level.\n\n\u201cThe EPA needs the help because it has historically only approved two of these permits, and it took an average of six years each to do this.\n\n\u201cThe IIJA was signed into law two years ago today\u2026on November 15\u2026and only last week did the EPA finally announce the funding for states to apply for primacy.\n\n\u201cIn addition to delaying the application process for funding, the administration has also now loaded up the primacy application process with new \u2018guidance\u2019 and directions to address environmental justice that seems designed to slow projects down or suggest they are not safe.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, the EPA has not permitted any of the 169 well applications that now pending.\n\n\u201cInstead of focusing on expediting permitting and environmental reviews, the President\u2019s Council on Environmental Quality has focused on changing the rules of the road for the NEPA process.\n\n\u201cThe administration\u2019s recent proposal, instead of simplifying the environmental review and permitting process as Congress directed in the recent debt limit legislation, would add hurdles to those processes and expand the scope of reviews, opening projects up to increased delays and legal challenges.\n\n\u201cI do not want to suggest hydrogen and CCUS are our only tools for reducing industrial emissions, but I think we need to take [note] of the regulatory headwinds those are facing.\n\n\u201cI support other bipartisan solutions to reducing industrial emissions, such as utilizing advanced nuclear for industrial purposes.\n\n\u201cMy bipartisan nuclear bill with the Chairman, the ADVANCE Act, includes a number of important policies to deploy advanced reactors to do just that.\n\n\u201cNo matter how good the bipartisan solutions to address climate change are, our efforts will never be realized if the projects they support are never built due to permitting challenges and a slew of new EPA regulations.\n\n\u201cRegulations such as the forthcoming Particulate Matter 2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards\u2026NAAQS\u2026that the administration is rumored to plan finalizing at a level that will plunge much of the country into nonattainment, requiring stricter permitting or offsets for new infrastructure or industrial facilities.\n\n\u201cRegulations such as the Clean Power Plan 2.0 that would undermine reliability and drive up the cost of power for manufacturing with its unachievable short-term targets.\n\n\u201cAntiquated regulations like New Source Review will stymie upgrades at existing power plants and manufacturing facilities.\n\n\u201cThe list goes on and on.\n\n\u201cI urge my colleagues to continue to work with me on permitting reform and updating out-of-date environmental regulations, areas within this Committee\u2019s jurisdiction, so we can ensure that emissions reducing technologies can actually get out of the market and make a difference.\n\n\u201cThank you to our three witness who are here today and I look forward to our discussion and learning more about your efforts to reduce carbon emissions.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ranking-member-capito-opening-statement-at-hearing-on-industrial-decarbonization"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0365522466599941, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}