Original Report: www.nytimes.com(full story)
Environmentalists express concerns that tax subsidies for carbon capture and sequestration, introduced in President Biden’s 2022 climate legislation, may be poorly monitored. These subsidies encouraged the oil industry to invest billions in capturing and storing carbon dioxide, but lawmakers, tax watchdogs, and climate activists worry the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cannot adequately verify the claims of companies regarding the amounts of carbon stored.
The IRS and the Environmental Protection Agency rely on self-reported data from the companies, without conducting independent verification of the emissions captured. The tax subsidies aim to incentivize companies toward carbon capture to combat climate change and were significant in passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. The Treasury Department estimates these subsidies will cost over $36 billion in revenue over ten years.
