Our lives are, at their core, a huge mix of different situations. Now, considering these situations shape up within their own exclusive environment, it becomes our responsibility to learn how we can adapt to them in the most seamless manner possible. Such a task, however, is easier said than done. You see, going all in on a new dynamic can mean that you have to make some structural changes in your life, and when an intricate procedure of this sort is asked to appear rather frequently, it opens up a chance for many things to go wrong. Hence, as a way of curbing the risk in play, the world will put its chips on certain external tools, which were specifically designed to guide us wherever we felt somewhat clueless. The returns would be immense, but if we assess the holistic impact, we can safely say that no other tool even came close to matching what technology achieved. While technology’s success is largely rooted in speeding up our transition to a smarter society, we must acknowledge the ideas it used to complete the said job. These ideas enabled us to deliver solutions that touched upon our entire spectrum. As you can guess, a broadened human mindset went on to inspire gazillion benefits, and if Biden administration’s new guidelines end up working out, we can very well expect another one to join the pack.
Biden administration has officially issued new guidelines for federal agencies in relation to assessing proposals centered on capturing carbon dioxide. Interestingly enough, even after all the pushback, the guidelines preach “widespread deployment” of a polarizing climate technology. Allotted $12 billion in bipartisan infrastructure bill, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) projects are integral to fulfilling Biden’s climate-related vision, but the approach is still yet to have everyone onboard. According to the critics, CCUS projects fail to discourage polluting activities, a drawback that they feel can produce hugely negative ramifications for nearby communities. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has been mindful about the said criticism, therefore the new guidelines come with certain mandates. For instance, the developers will need to trudge alongside various environmental regulations such as Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, and more. Apart from it, CEQ also asked the agencies to consult general public over projects that might affect them.
“While CCUS can be an important tool in tackling the climate crisis, the benefits and impacts of potential projects vary significantly — requiring careful planning and oversight to ensure deployment is safe, equitable, and environmentally sound,” said the White House.
As CCUS projects are themselves subjective to releasing pollutants other than CO2, the council has specially requested Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency to study their overall impact.
