Reflections on 2024: FECM’s Year in Review

By any measure, 2024 was one of the most successful in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s (FECM’s) history. 

We made enormous progress toward addressing and reducing methane emissions in the oil and gas industry to meet our environmental responsibilities and ensure that U.S. natural gas can compete in a rapidly changing global marketplace.

We accelerated carbon capture, removal, utilization, and storage technologies, and laid the groundwork for a strengthened and expanded carbon dioxide (CO₂) transport and storage infrastructure.

We made real and impressive strides toward establishing a secure domestic supply chain for the critical minerals and materials that will be required in a 21st Century economy.

We advanced pathways to clean hydrogen deployment through fuel cell technology, as well as electrolysis and biomass, waste, and fossil resources coupled to carbon capture, utilization, and storage. 

And we expanded meaningful engagement and strengthened relationships with communities, Tribes, industry, and other stakeholders to not only ensure the success of our projects but also to help drive economic development, technological innovation, and the growth of high-wage jobs across America.

Our 2024 successes would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the people who make up FECM. We are thankful for our leadership and our team at Headquarters and at the National Energy Technology Laboratory for their continued amazing work—and for their professionalism and commitment. 

As we look toward 2025, we remain committed to carrying out our work for the American people. 

Year in Review Highlights

Here are a few prominent examples of FECM investing in technologies to minimize the environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuel and industrial processes:

• DOE collaborated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to award $850 million to 43 projects that will help small oil and gas operators, Tribes, and other entities across the country to reduce, monitor, measure, and quantify methane emissions from the oil and gas sector as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. 
• With funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, FECM awarded $518 million to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure for permanent, safe storage of CO₂. The 23 selected projects across 19 states support the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) Initiative.
• FECM announced $75 million to establish a Critical Materials Supply Chain Research Facility to support on-going government initiatives, such as the Critical Materials Collaborative and Critical Materials Innovation Hub, along with the overall DOE-wide critical mineral and material goals of diversifying and expanding supply, developing alternatives, improving efficiencies across the supply chain, and enabling a circular economy.
• FECM invested $45 million into six projects to create regional consortia focused on securing domestic critical minerals and materials. The selected projects will build on DOE’s Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative, expanding the focus from the basin scale to cover eight regions across the nation. 
• FECM along with DOE’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office invested more than $58.5 million into 11 projects that aim to support Carbon Negative Shot’s objectives through integrated pilot-scale testing of advanced technologies and detailed monitoring, reporting, and verification protocols. Carbon Negative Shot is the U.S. government’s first major carbon dioxide removal effort and part of DOE’s larger Energy Earthshots Initiative.
• FECM invested $44.5 million into nine university and industry-led project teams that will serve as regional partners to advance commercial-scale carbon capture, transport, and storage across the United States. The Regional Initiative for Technical Assistance Partnerships will accelerate the understanding of specific geologic basins to enable the permanent storage of CO₂ emissions from industrial operations and power plants, as well as legacy emissions in the atmosphere. 
• FECM announced four research and development projects that will receive nearly $32 million to advance technologies to help reduce natural gas flaring at oil production sites, a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, by transforming gas into valuable products that would otherwise be wasted by those operations. These projects support the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan, which launched a whole-of-government initiative to redouble efforts to significantly reduce methane emissions while protecting workers and communities, growing jobs, and promoting U.S. technology innovation.

FECM also formed new working groups and initiatives to strengthen stakeholder engagement:

• After requesting, receiving, and incorporating feedback from climate, environmental justice, community, labor organizations, and carbon management sector leaders, along with guidance from other DOE offices, FECM released principles to help developers deploy successful carbon management projects that reduce pollution, create high-quality jobs, and improve transparency and accountability under the Responsible Carbon Management Initiative.
• The International Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification Working Group released a framework for the measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification of methane, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gas emissions to drive continuous reductions in emissions across the global natural gas market.
• The Tribal Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Working Group was formed to provide ongoing advice and expertise to DOE on the best ways to assist Tribal decarbonization efforts and utilization of their natural resources.
• DOE and the White House Council on Environmental Quality held the first meeting of two federal Permitting Task Forces to help address the efficient, orderly, and responsible development of CO₂ pipelines and related carbon capture and storage projects. This includes projects on both private and federal lands and of those that cross federal, state and tribal boundaries.
• And with support from various DOE offices, we released the Carbon Management Strategy for public comment to provide a comprehensive roadmap for the remainder of the decade.

We hope you enjoyed reading this highlight of FECM’s accomplishments over the past year. To keep up to date with future announcements, blogs, and more, sign up for news alerts and follow us on X, LinkedIn, and Facebook.