Climate Changed
Tax Break Popular With Oil Drillers, Conservationists Gets Boost
- Carbon dioxide stashed underground now worth $50 a ton
- Strange bedfellows coalition has lobbied for years on 45Q
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Oil companies that have claimed more than a billion dollars in tax credits for burying carbon dioxide underground just got a windfall from Congress, which expanded that incentive as part of the government spending bill signed into law on Friday.
The move culminates a six-year lobbying effort that brought together environmental groups, oil companies, equipment manufacturers and coal miners that see the credit as essential to drive investment in technology that can harness carbon dioxide as it flows out of power plants, ethanol factories, steel mills and refineries.