The Loan Programs Office (LPO), in partnership with DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), offers access to capital for large-capacity, common-carrier carbon dioxide (CO2) transport projects (e.g., pipelines, rail, shipping, and other transport methods).

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, including direct air capture (DAC), must be deployed at a large-scale in the coming decades to reduce hard-to-abate CO2 emissions from the industrial sector. CIFIA will support CCUS technology deployment by financing projects that build shared CO2 transport infrastructure. This infrastructure will benefit from economies of scale and help form an interconnected carbon management market.

Large common-carrier CO2 transport infrastructure shares similar barriers to deployment previously faced by other types of critical national infrastructure, such as high capital costs, short-term demand and utilization uncertainty, and chicken-and-egg challenges. Overcoming these barriers requires Federal, state, and local government support along with private investment. CIFIA was created to address these barriers.

How Can CIFIA Support the Deployment of Carbon Management Technologies? Carbon management technologies such as DAC, point-source carbon capture, carbon conversion, and CO2 transport and storage technologies must be deployed at a large-scale in the coming decades to meet the United States’ net-zero greenhouse gas goals by 2050.

CIFIA was created to finance projects that build shared (i.e., common carrier) transport infrastructure to move CO2 from points of capture to conversion facilities and/or storage wells. This CO2 transport infrastructure will provide economies of scale and help form an interconnected carbon management ecosystem in the United States.

Large common carrier CO2 transport infrastructure shares similar barriers to deployment previously faced by other types of critical national infrastructure, such as high capital costs, uncertain near-term utilization and returns as demand comes online, and chicken-and-egg challenges.

These barriers require federal, state, and local government support along with private sector investment to be overcome. CIFIA was created to address these barriers.

Is My Project Eligible? An eligible CIFIA project must:

• Be a large-capacity common carrier CO2 transportation infrastructure project that transports CO2 captured from anthropogenic sources and/or ambient air by pipeline, shipping, rail, or other methods for storage and/or use.
• Have total project costs greater than $100 million.
• Be located in the United States.
• Publish, by project completion, a publicly available tariff with just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions for nondiscriminatory CO2 transportation service.
• Have a reasonable prospect of repaying its CIFIA loan from project cashflows.

A Letter of Interest is the first formal step in applying to CIFIA.