🇺🇲 Could this bill boost CDR in the U.S.? 🇺🇲

😱 Who would have thought that the U.S. could become the first country to incorporate carbon removals into a carbon border adjustment mechanism (hashtag#CBAM)? Not me.

📜 Earlier this month, two Republican Senators, Bill Cassidy (LA) and Lindsey Graham (SC), introduced the Foreign Pollution Feed Act of 2040.

The bill imposes a fee on imported goods with higher greenhouse gas emissions than U.S.-made equivalents, aiming to:

🌐 Protect domestic industries complying with strict environmental laws

📉 Reduce global pollution by addressing carbon leakage

🏭 Incentivise cleaner industrial production abroad

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

🏗️ US-manufacturing is 44% more carbon-efficient than the global average however 75% of U.S. imports come from countries with higher pollution intensity. So, in addition to undermining global climate action, it also creates a cost disadvantage for domestic producers.

📈 According to BCG, CBAMs like this could drive 50 to 550 MtCO₂/year of additional durable CDR demand by 2050—beyond demand created by domestic carbon pricing alone.

💪 The bill is setting the bar for durability explicitly allowing carbon removal to offset the emissions footprint of imported goods, under strict durability rules with only long-term storage (1,000+ years) counts.

WILL IT WORK?

🤝 I think it stands a fighting chance. It enjoys broad support from across the political spectrum, industry groups, CDR ecosystem, climate advocates, and leading think tanks.

🎙️ In our recent CDR Policy Scoop with Dan Maleski, he called this a “fake CBAM”, saying it’s really just a tariff with an environmental disguise as it's not complemented by a domestic price on carbon and emission trading system (like in the EU).

🙌 TBH I don’t really care what we call it. Any bill that can drive finance towards the scale-up of CDR, especially through compliance is a winner in my book: for U.S. industry, global carbon removal, and of course, the planet.

⁉️ What is your take? Excited as I am about this one?

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