CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States

This document outlines key infrastructure, technology, and policy requirements needed to enable the scaled deployment of carbon removal pathways in the United States, covering energy needs, storage, transport, monitoring, and land use.

• Scaling carbon removal requires significant low-carbon energy; specifically, direct air capture needs approximately 2 terawatt-hours of low-carbon power or equivalent thermal energy for every 1 MtCO2 removed annually to remain net negative.
• While the United States has a geologic storage capacity estimated at hundreds or thousands of gigatons, scaling this requires investment. The National Academies of Sciences suggests a federal investment of $250 million per year in R&D to support scaled-up storage operations.
• The current Class VI permitting process for CO2 injection in the United States, including post-injection monitoring, is described as burdensome and potentially detrimental to the scaling of underground CO2 storage.
• To improve natural carbon capture monitoring, the document recommends increasing sampling network density (particularly on-farm soil carbon measurement), investing in remote sensing tools like LiDAR, monitoring land management practices, and centralizing data into a spatially explicit system accessible to nonfederal researchers.
• Land use efficiency is critical for natural carbon removal; increasing agricultural productivity can free land for carbon-dense ecosystems, while policies protecting natural lands are necessary to ensure federal investments result in real carbon removal rather than just mitigating losses.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-creating-strong-enabling-environment-carbon-removal.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States. n.d. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-creating-strong-enabling-environment-carbon-removal.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-creating-strong-enabling-environment-carbon-removal.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcarbonshot, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{CarbonShot: Federal Policy Options for Carbon Removal in the United States}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-creating-strong-enabling-environment-carbon-removal.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }