The U.S. Energy Department announced Monday that it will award $6 billion in funding for projects aimed at cutting carbon emissions from the industrial sector. This is the country’s largest investment to date in decarbonizing domestic industry, which is responsible for around 25% of all U.S. emissions, in an effort to battle climate change.
The funding, which is coming from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will go to 33 projects in more than 20 states. The projects include a zero-carbon aluminum casting plant with low-emission furnaces, to be built by Constellium inWest Virginia; the installation of heat pumps, electric heaters and electric boilers to decarbonize food production at 10 Kraft Heinz facilities; and a system to capture and store carbon underground at a Heidelberg Materials US, Inc., plant in Indiana.
In a call with news media, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the funded technologies are “replicable,” “scalable” and will “set a new gold standard for clean manufacturing in the United States and around the world.” Ali Zaidi, White House climate advisor, said that the funding aims to get rid of 14 million metric tons of pollution annually, which is equivalent to eliminating approximately 3 million cars from the roads.
