🔥 U.S. Senate proposes CDR Tax Credit for Wildfire Prevention 🔥

🏛️ Just a few weeks ago, I published an article on “How Biochar can Help Prevent Wildfires”, with some clear recommendations for the type of policy that we’d need.

🇺🇲 Little did I know that two U.S. Senators - Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) - had been busy at work on just that. Two days ago, they introduced the “Wildfire Reduction and Carbon Removal Act of 2025”.

📉 The idea is simple: reduce wildfire risk by using forest residues as biomass feedstock and creating a tax credit to incentivise such use.

⚠️ Specifically, it plans to reward any biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) approaches which can remove this hazardous material and turn it into durable CDR.

💰 The tax credit (45BB) would reward such operators with $180/t for CDR with 1,000+ years durability and $60/t for 100+ years durability.

🌲 Eligible biomass must come from firesheds identified by the U.S. Forest Service as having high wildfire hazard and ecological degradation. Only residues such as small-diameter trees (<8 inches DBH), limbs, and bark that comply with region-specific sustainability standards are eligible

🤝 To ensure the credit benefits public and private actors alike, the bill allows for direct payment in lieu of tax liability and transferability to other market participants, supporting project finance and broader participation

🧡 I obviously LOVE this bill. It embeds that win-win of addressing an urgent, tangible issue (wildfires), while creating incentives to help fight climate change through durable CDR.

🤞 Now the big caveat: the bill was introduced by two democratic senators. In the heavily partisan world we live in, I doubt it will go far. Having said that, this bill does feel palatable to republicans as well, so fingers crossed the right sponsors can be found across the aisle.

❓ What is your take? Is this the future of CDR policy in the U.S.?

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