Authors Vanessa Suarez

Progress and potential for the South Texas DAC hub

After a year of negotiations, the Department of Energy (DOE) has made its second award to a commercial-scale DAC hub, 1PointFive’s South Texas hub, as part of the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program. In March of 2024, Project…

Vanessa Suarez, Nasya Dodson, JD, and Courtni Holness

Anatomy of a community benefits plan

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) effort to deploy large-scale carbon removal includes important first steps toward a more equitable CDR industry. Community benefit plans (CBPs) are required for all Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding opportunity announcements and…

Alayna Chuney, Esq. and Vanessa Suarez

Scaling agricultural soil carbon for communities and climate

Introduction US agriculture has long been a driving force of both climate change and social injustice, creating a feedback loop that has pushed the industry to the brink of acute soil depletion, forced removal of Indigenous and Black producers…

Vanessa Suarez

A breakdown of FY22 funding for carbon removal

Federal funding for carbon removal has skyrocketed over the past few months, crossing a historic threshold — more than $1 billion within a single fiscal year — thanks to the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA) and…

Vanessa Suarez

The future of carbon removal is built on reimagined public engagement

My love for the vibrant people and unique geography of Fresno, California, my hometown, has largely shaped my climate journey. Fresno is many things — an agricultural powerhouse, helping feed over a quarter of the country;…

Vanessa Suarez

The 2020 omnibus bill elevated carbon removal like never before

Towards the end of December, Congress passed H.R.133 — a massive omnibus spending bill containing $900 billion for COVID-19 relief, $1.4 trillion for fiscal year 2021 (FY21) appropriations, and new authorizations. As we’ve written before, federal funding…

Vanessa Suarez