Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act of 2026
Sponsored By: Representative Tonko, Paul [D-NY-20]
Introduced
Summary
Establishes a rising federal mandate to remove carbon dioxide directly from ambient air and seawater. The Department of Energy must meet a time‑phased schedule through competitive contracts and require strict quality, measurement, and storage standards.
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- Workers and businesses: Creates demand for domestic jobs and manufacturing, with selection preferences for labor, small businesses, minority-owned, and women-owned firms.
- Communities and regions: Prioritizes regional economic development in fossil-fuel communities, requires robust public engagement, enforceable community benefit agreements, and quantified local environmental co-benefits.
- Program design and climate safeguards: Sets a stepped removal schedule that reaches 10 million net metric tons per year by 2036 and requires contracts that meet durability and additionality rules. The program includes a set-aside for small removal projects, price ceilings starting up to $750 per ton that decline over time, independent third-party measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification, and a ban on double counting.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 2 mixed.
Federal CO2 removal purchase program
If enacted, the Secretary of Energy would have to secure rising amounts of net CO2 removal each year: 50,000 tons in FY2026–27, 500,000 tons in FY2028–30, 5,000,000 tons in FY2031–35, and 10,000,000 tons in FY2036 and after. Each fiscal-year amount would need to be removed no later than three years after that fiscal year starts. The Secretary could award competitive contracts, up to 15 years long, that require independent measurement and that make contractors liable to replace any stored CO2 later released. The bill would also set maximum per-ton prices used to judge economic feasibility ($750/ton for FY2026–27; $500/ton for FY2028–30; $300/ton for FY2031–33; $200/ton for FY2034–36; $150/ton from FY2037), with inflation adjustments allowed.
Small-project set-aside and priorities
If enacted, at least 20% of each year's required removals in FY2026–2035 should come from small projects. A "small" project would remove no more than 5% of that fiscal year's requirement. The Secretary would also limit any single company to 25% of a year's removals when enough capable companies exist. The Secretary must favor projects that cut project emissions, use diverse technologies, create U.S. jobs (with a preference for labor partnerships and small, minority- or women-owned firms), and deliver measurable community and environmental co-benefits.
Study and funding for scaling program
If enacted, the Secretary must report within one year on options to design and finance a federal CO2 removal offtake program that could scale to one billion tons per year by 2050. The study must consider management structures like a government-sponsored enterprise, a government corporation, a DOE office, or a contracted provider. The bill also authorizes such sums as are necessary to carry out the program, but Congress must still appropriate any funding.
Rules to verify and report CO2 removals
If enacted, the Secretary must set measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) rules within one year. The rules would require independent third-party verification, lifecycle accounting, durability standards, and regular updates. The Secretary would publish a public report by January 1, 2029 and every two years after showing verified removals, prices paid, technologies, locations, and community and job impacts. The bill would also define eligible technologies (placed in service after Jan 1, 2022) and ban double-counting of removals already used for other greenhouse gas programs.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Tonko, Paul [D-NY-20]
NY • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Peters, Scott H. [D-CA-50]
CA • D
Sponsored 7/27/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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