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Senators and witnesses stress urgency for direct air capture, but note energy and scale hurdles
Summary
Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse and witnesses emphasized the need to scale carbon dioxide removal, including direct air capture (DAC), to meet climate scenarios, while testifying that DAC’s costs and power needs make rapid scale‑up contingent on cheap, abundant energy and clearer permitting.
WASHINGTON — Senators and expert witnesses at a Senate EPW Committee hearing said direct air capture and other carbon removal technologies are necessary to reach aggressive climate pathways, but warned that scale, economics and permitting remain significant obstacles.
Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, opened with a review of climate modeling and argued that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be necessary if the U.S. and world are to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change. "Carbon dioxide removal will be necessary to achieve net negative CO2 emissions," Whitehouse said, citing peer‑reviewed…
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