DOE’s coal funding announcement misallocates critical funding for carbon capture demonstrations

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) contends that the Department of Energy's (DOE) "Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning And Modernization" funding opportunity redirects up to $350 million from carbon capture pilot programs to maintain aging coal plants without requiring carbon capture installation. CATF argues that targeting plants scheduled for retirement before 2032 makes carbon capture infeasible due to the 3-7 year construction timeline and the 12-20 year operational period needed to recover capital costs. Furthermore, the document states that allocating $350 million across up to five plants is too diluted, as a single large-scale retrofit often exceeds $500 million. CATF recommends that the DOE limit eligibility to plants expected to operate beyond 2040 and mandate explicit capture performance requirements to meet the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mandate for two coal-based carbon capture demonstrations.

• The DOE funding opportunity "Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning And Modernization" redirects up to $350 million from carbon capture programs to coal plants that are inactive or retiring before 2032, which CATF claims makes carbon capture infeasible because retrofits take 3-7 years to build and 12-20 years to recover costs.
• The current funding allocation is too diluted to support a meaningful demonstration, as $350 million spread across five plants is insufficient compared to the $500 million capital investment often required for a single large coal plant retrofit.
• The funding opportunity contradicts the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mandate, which requires the DOE to establish a carbon capture technology program including two demonstrations at coal electric generation facilities.

APA

Bowers, S. (2025). DOE’s coal funding announcement misallocates critical funding for carbon capture demonstrations. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2025/12/does-coal-funding-announcement-misallocates-critical-funding-carbon-capture-demonstrations-proposed-new-office-hydrocarbon-geothermal-energy-can-fix-it/

Chicago

Bowers, Sam. DOE’s coal funding announcement misallocates critical funding for carbon capture demonstrations. Clean Air Task Force, 2025. https://www.catf.us/2025/12/does-coal-funding-announcement-misallocates-critical-funding-carbon-capture-demonstrations-proposed-new-office-hydrocarbon-geothermal-energy-can-fix-it/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Bowers |first1=Sam |title=DOE’s coal funding announcement misallocates critical funding for carbon capture demonstrations |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=2 December 2025 |url=https://www.catf.us/2025/12/does-coal-funding-announcement-misallocates-critical-funding-carbon-capture-demonstrations-proposed-new-office-hydrocarbon-geothermal-energy-can-fix-it/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{bowers2025does, author = {Bowers, Sam}, title = {{DOE’s coal funding announcement misallocates critical funding for carbon capture demonstrations}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://www.catf.us/2025/12/does-coal-funding-announcement-misallocates-critical-funding-carbon-capture-demonstrations-proposed-new-office-hydrocarbon-geothermal-energy-can-fix-it/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }