What is really happening to DAC Hubs? - with Grant Faber

Grant Faber, Head of Standards at Absolute Climate, joins Eve Tamme and Sebastian Manhart. Grant previously served as Director Capture Hubs program manager at the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, and the conversation picks up on the widely circulated article he published mapping out exactly where the US DAC Hubs program stands today.

Grant walks through why disbursement has stalled at roughly two and a half percent of the original three and a half billion dollars in funding. Much of the delay traces back to the lengthy contract negotiation process that follows every award announcement: milestones, budgets, environmental compliance, and cybersecurity plans all have to be finalized before a dollar moves, a process that consumed nearly his entire tenure at DOE before the change in administration froze everything.

The conversation turns candid on the terminations that followed. Grant explains why the cancellations fell disproportionately along party lines, and reveals that DOE itself admitted in court that projects were chosen for termination on a purely political basis. He also recounts his own experience of being caught up in the so called Valentine's Day massacre, locked out of his systems weeks after the inauguration.

Grant closes by breaking down what remains: a billion dollars reprogrammed to nuclear funding and one point three billion still sitting unobligated, and offers his sharpest advice for policymakers elsewhere, move quickly, build coalitions across the political spectrum, and design funding to land in every state, not just the ones that already agree with you.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Grant Faber: LinkedIn
• Absolute Climate
• The Status of DOE's $3.5 Billion Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs Program
• DOE Alumni Network
• Grant's directory, A list of every direct air capture company in the world
• Grant's directory, A list of every carbon dioxide removal company in the world:
• USA Spending, the federal spending database referenced for DAC Hubs obligation and outlay data:

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