Council on Environmental Quality

Interagency Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force

The Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) delivered a series of recommendations to the President on overcoming the barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years on August 12, 2010.  CCS is a group of technologies for capturing, compressing, transporting and permanently storing power plant and industrial source emissions of carbon dioxide. Rapid development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly CCS, will help position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race. The report concludes that CCS can play an important role in domestic greenhouse gas emissions reductions while preserving the option of using coal and other abundant domestic fossil energy resources.

In February, 2010, President Obama sent a memorandum to the heads of 14 Executive departments and Federal agencies establishing an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage. The Task Force, co-chaired by the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, was charged with proposing a plan to overcome the barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years, with a goal of bringing 5 to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. 

The report reflects input from 14 Federal agencies and departments as well as hundreds of stakeholders and CCS experts.  It addresses the incentives for CCS adoption and any financial, economic, technological, legal, institutional, or other barriers to deployment.  The Task Force also considered how best to coordinate existing Federal authorities and programs, as well as identify areas where additional Federal authority may be necessary.