Publication or article

Chapter 45Q provides large tax credits for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). Unlike budgetary spending, these credits are uncapped and the costs to taxpayers in terms of lost federal tax revenues appears to have been greatly underestimated. Not only is the government’s financial exposure uncapped, but compliance with statutory rules is self-reported, and because tax returns are confidential under federal law (26 USC §6103), only the IRS is legally entitled to know the identities of claimants and the amounts of their claims.

The 45Q tax credit expansion for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage, passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, dramatically increases the expected cost to taxpayers without adequate oversight or transparency to ensure fiscal integrity or program efficacy. 

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024 (WNISR2024) assesses the status and trends of the international nuclear industry. Earth Track was pleased to have contributed to the report again this year, with the focus chapter Power Firming and Competitive Pressure on Nuclear Energy assessing how solar/wind + storage put increasing competitive pressures on the nuclear sector.

This interim report represents the first comprehensive attempt to identify and quantify subsidies received by the primary plastics polymer (PPP) production industry. The report specifically examines the stages of production from the processing of raw plastic materials—such as steam cracking of naphtha, isolation of alkenes from raw natural gas, and coal gasification—through to the production of basic resins and the compounding and extrusion of plastic pellets.

Despite 50 years of development and an estimated USD 83 billion in investments since the 1990s, carbon capture has failed to make a dent in carbon emissions. Carbon capture projects consistently fail, overspend, or underperform. In the United States, where most carbon capture projects operate with the help of major federal subsidies, 80% of projects fail due to technical issues, over expenditure, and a lack of financial investment returns. Even if carbon capture functioned as planned, the projects currently operating globally would only capture 0.1% of global emissions.

This event was the Washington, DC launch of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2023 (WNISR 2023). It was co-sponsored by Princeton's Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment and the Program on Science and Global Security.