The Hidden Power Behind U.S. Carbon Capture Lobbying: Who Really Benefits?

By Drs. Charles Harvey and Lindsey Gulden

On paper, carbon capture and storage (CCS) sounds like a miracle. Trap carbon dioxide, pipe it underground, and solve climate change without changing how polluters do business. In Washington, CCS has been sold as a climate solution worthy of billions in taxpayer subsidies. 

The reality looks less like innovation and more like an industry cash grab. A review of federal lobbying disclosures from 2005 to 2024 reveals nearly a billion dollars spent lobbying Congress and the White House on CCS and related technologies. 

Most of that spending came from the usual heavy hitters on Capitol Hill. The list of top spenders reads like a roll call of Big Oil and coal utilities—Occidental Petroleum poured in $94 million; Southern Company spent $75 million; ExxonMobil, $50 million. Fifteen firms that directly profit from oil, gas, or coal accounted for half the $1 billion total and made more than 4,600 lobbying contacts. These companies aren’t fighting for emissions reductions. They’re protecting profits at taxpayers’ expense. 

The results of this influence campaign are easy to trace. More than half the $1 billion in lobbying money was spent after 2019, coinciding with major legislative wins. First written into the tax code in 2008, Section 45Q offers a lucrative credit for every ton of carbon captured and stored. The provision grew under both Presidents Biden and Trump. In 2022, the “Inflation Reduction Act” boosted the credit to as much as $85 per ton for certain end uses, bringing the estimated total cost of 45Q to over $30 billion. The best we can do is estimate because the Treasury Department doesn’t reveal how much, to whom, or for what subsidies are paid.  And in July 2025, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” expanded it again, tacking on another estimated $14 billion. Now companies that pump CO₂ into depleting wells to eke out more oil—a process known as enhanced oil recovery, or EOR—can also collect up to $85 a ton. 

Using captured carbon for oil recovery to boost production has been standard practice since the 1970s and remains the most common use today. At ExxonMobil’s Shute Creek natural gas plant in Wyoming, naturally stored carbon dioxide is pumped to the surface with natural gas and then injected back into the ground to produce oil in nearby oil fields. That’s right: the CO₂ was already underground before it was brought to surface, then injecting it back into the ground to harvest subsidies while also producing oil. Furthermore, when the price of oil is too low to support enhanced oil production, half of the CO₂ brought to surface and separated from the gas stream is vented straight into the atmosphere . The 45Q subsidies  essentially function as carbon production credits—federal taxpayers pay ExxonMobil for every ton it pulls out of the ground and reinjects—on top of profits from selling the oil and gas. 

The subsidies don’t stop there. Billions in federal funding have gone into CCS demonstration projects—like the Petra Nova plant in Texas and Archer Daniels Midland’s project in Illinois. Once commercial, these sites can claim 45Q credits, too. Subsidized at every step, they become a perpetual drain on taxpayers. 

CCS boosters often claim the technology will be at some future time essential for sectors like steel or cement with hard-to-abate emissions. But those industries accounted for just three percent of the $1 billion spent on lobbying. The money trail points squarely at fossil fuels and the industries tied to them. 

The direct cost of these subsidies is just the tip of the iceberg. Federal dollars are driving the rapid build-out of CCS pipelines and storage sites across the country, threatening landowners with eminent domain and exposing communities to risks of leaks that can cause CO₂ poisoning or groundwater contamination. And the public has no way to know how much carbon is actually stored, who is claiming 45Q credits, or how much they receive. Treasury doesn’t disclose that information. 

It’s time to stop taxpayer subsidies that further enrich already profitable oil and gas companies under the guise of climate benefits. The fossil fuel industry made its case with nearly a billion dollars in lobbying. It’s time for taxpayers to have their say.