Carper Highlights Climate, Economic Opportunities of Industrial Decarbonization

Press Release

"Heavy industry makes products that are central to our lives, including steel, cement, and aluminum. And, at the same time, the industrial sector is responsible for nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and represents the third largest source of U.S. emissions -- trailing only the transportation and power sectors. By 2030, the industrial sector is expected to become the largest source of domestic greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet, within these challenges also lies real opportunity. In addition to helping us meet our climate goals, reducing industrial emissions presents great opportunities for us to invest in … American industry in order to boost our nation's economic competitiveness. The benefits of decarbonizing key industrial materials go beyond simply mitigating emissions at individual facilities. By producing materials in cleaner ways, we can reduce emissions throughout our supply chains, too. And, by investing in the industries that are producing lower carbon materials for our buildings, our roads, and our electric vehicles, we can help support our clean energy transition.

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We know that federal actions are key to unlocking swift and sharp emission reductions from industry, and that's why the EPW Committee provided funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to support near-term actions and transformative technologies to reduce emissions from heavy industry … Would you please describe ways in which the programs enacted under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act are supporting our efforts to decarbonize heavy industry?

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Many of the transformative technologies that will enable deep decarbonization -- such as entirely new ways to produce clean materials -- will require time to reach commercial scale … As the 5th National Climate Assessment makes all too clear -- just released -- we don't have time to wait for these solutions to come to market as the climate crisis progresses. While those new technologies develop, many tools are already available to make meaningful emissions reductions today … Would you just take a few minutes and share with us some specific examples … of existing methods that can deliver immediate benefits?"

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