Carbon Capture and Storage Workforce Development: State-by-State

The enhancement of the section 45Q tax credit for carbon sequestration in the Inflation Reduction Act greatly increased the level of economic carbon capture retrofit opportunity in the US. As a result, the industry has expanded, and there continues to be an increase in retrofit announcements, primarily in the industrial sector. We expect this momentum to continue as carbon capture is a critical technology to decarbonizing industrial combustion and process emissions and also has a valuable role to play in decarbonizing the US electricity system.

In this analysis, we update previous state-by-state analysis focused on the carbon capture retrofit and pipeline transportation workforce opportunities. We expand on the original analysis focused on states participating in the Great Plains Institute’s Regional Carbon Capture Deployment Initiative to include new initiative states located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US including Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In addition to expanding the study region, we also look at the CO2 storage investment and employment benefits for all states in the Mid-continent and Mid-Atlantic region. This is the first study of its kind to look state-by-state at the economic opportunity and workforce potential for CO2 storage at the hundreds of megatons scale. In line with the body of research we have produced this year on workforce development in emerging climate technologies, this analysis shows occupational detail for the construction and operation jobs created from carbon capture retrofits and associated CO2 pipeline transportation and storage infrastructure.

Methodology

This nonpartisan, independent research was conducted with support from the Great Plains Institute (GPI). The results presented reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily those of supporting organizations.