Bringing carbon removal to life

Carbon removal projects are being commissioned all over the country. This summer, we brought members of Congress and their staff to see them firsthand in their districts and home states.

Lawmakers often come to carbon removal with limited background and learn about it alongside competing national and local priorities. When carbon removal can not only address climate change, but also intersect with water quality, wildfire prevention, energy generation, international trade competition, or soil health, it becomes relevant at the community-level.  

House Democratic Whip tours Massachusetts’ Greentown Labs

Greentown Labs, located on a large campus in Somerville, Massachusetts, is one of the largest climate tech incubatorsopens in a new tab in the country. It is home to hundreds of innovative companies working on technologies that reduce waste, conserve resources, and address other major environmental challenges. It’s also home to Anvil'opens in a new tabs lab, where Corey Myers, James Lawler, and their team are working to bind rocks found in mine waste with atmospheric carbon dioxide, forming carbonate minerals that permanently lock that carbon away.

In August, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, staffers for Senators Markey and Warren, and Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson visited Greentown Labs to learn more about carbon removal. Clark represents Massachusetts' Fifth Congressional District and serves as House Democratic Whip, the second-highest-ranking position in the House Democratic Caucus. She also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has broad jurisdiction over energy policy and environmental quality in the United States.

Greentown CEO Georgina Campbell Flatter and Head of Boston Julia Travaglini led the tour, which covered the incubator's sprawling space. More than 200 startups operate at Greentown, making the leap from lab bench to commercial scale. Greentown helps bridge that gap by giving emerging companies access to vital resources without requiring each one to make enormous infrastructure investments alone.

For Anvil, Greentown lab has been vital as the company tests its mineralization technology. The technology can operate in locations with the most efficient carbon dioxide reactivity and achieves a net removal efficiency of 85% to 98%. Applying carbon mineralization to mine waste could help the U.S. address legacy pollution, recover additional value from domestic mineral resources, and permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Back in Washington D.C,  the visit underscored the potential impact of the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative (EMRTAI) Authorization Act of 2026, which just recently passed the House.opens in a new tab​ This legislation enables companies like Anvil to complete technical assessments on federal mine lands, proving their technology in partnership with the EPA.

North Carolina Republicans visit Sunrock Industries quarry with local farmers to learn about enhanced rock weathering

In August at Sunrock Industry’s Butner Quarryopens in a new tab, we gathered a delegation of North Carolina lawmakers including Congressman Knott, Representative of North Carolina’s 13th district, and staff from Senator Ted Budd and Senator Tillis’ offices. The focus of the visit was enhanced rock weathering, the process of farmers spreading volcanic basalt rock dust on their fields to help manage soil pH, improve their crop yields, and in some cases, reduce their cost compared to using traditional aglime. 

The tour brought together a broad cross section of the ERW ecosystem. Dr. Noah Planavsky of Yale University, whose research has helped build the academic foundation for rock weathering, joined us. Sunrock leadership and the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association anchored the conversation around the millions of tons of volcanic rock dust that accumulate as a byproduct of aggregate production and are being repurposed by Lithos for agriculture. Google, which has purchased carbon removal credits from Lithos, also participated.

The tour wound its way around the quarry, stopping  at the crusher which processes tens of thousands of tons of rock daily for gravel and cement companies, the byproduct dust collection system, and the commercial load-out area where 530,000+ tons of Lithos product has been shipped out to farms in three years. We focused on North Carolina’s specific characteristics — the state is one of the country’s leading aggregate-producers thanks to its unique geology, and has a wide agricultural landscape that needs better fixes for nutrient-stripped soils — all of which make it an ideal location for enhanced rock weathering.

Lithos is transforming this industrial waste stream into a sought-after agricultural resource that can bring new revenue to American mines while improving farms. According to the Rhodium Groupopens in a new tab, scaling ERW across the country could add up to 3,000 immediate project jobs and nearly 30,000 long-term domestic jobs. Lithos-partnered American farmers have already earned $1.1 million to support their transition to ERW, which can help rebuild topsoil that the U.S. is currently losing ten times faster than nature can replace it.

As the tour reached the final ridge of the quarry, Congressman Knott pressed the button to initiate a quarry blast, showing the group the first step in the process that supports American farmers as well as domestic manufacturing.

Longtime environmental advocate visits Swift Creek, Washington to learn about carbon mineralization

In the northwest corner of Washington, just south of the Canadian border, sits Sumas Mountain. Its western slope features Swift Creek, a known hazard where enormous, slow-moving landslides have exposed naturally occurring asbestos and heavy metals, heavily contaminating the creek.

This was the site of our September visit with Congressman Larsen, who represents Washington's Second District and is ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. It is the House's largest committee and oversees specific programs and activities of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including water, waste, and hazardous cleanup. He was joined by staff from Senator Cantwell's office.

Whatcom County Public Works began remediation workopens in a new tab at Swift Creek in 2021, and that work continues today, incorporating new technologies and environmental management approaches. One of those approaches is Arca, an industrial mineralization technology being deployed to help neutralize the asbestos on-site.

Mineralization works by breaking down the toxic asbestos fibers, which helps reduce airborne risk when the contaminated creek banks dry out and become vulnerable to disturbance from human activity or further landslides. The tour showed Arca's technology at work alongside broader remediation efforts, including landslide debris flow being deflected and flood risk being managed.

Arca's technology is being used at Swift Creek, but it can also be used at Superfund sites and legacy mine sites across the country. Thousands of legacy mines sit on federal land. These sites are often an environmental liability for the federal government, and many have no clear path toward remediation. Nearly 100 of them are on the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List, which indicates the severity of their environmental liability.

Carbon mineralization is a novel technology that can help advance EMRTAI program goals and address environmental remediation, such as destroying toxic asbestos fibers that pose environmental and public health risks and preventing acid mine drainage.

Energy leader visits direct air capture facility in New Mexico on the eve of its ribbon-cutting ceremony

In September, Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico toured Spiritus'opens in a new tab direct air capture (DAC) pilot facility at Nambé Pueblo, north of Santa Fe. Senator Heinrich is the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over energy policy, public lands, and natural resources. A few weeks later, the company hosted community members, local officials, and industry representatives to celebrate the company’s ribbon-cutting. 

Spiritus is developing direct air capture technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The company has materials science operations in White Rock and engineering operations at Nambé. The pilot facility sits within a 10,000-square-foot former water bottling facility on Nambé Pueblo land, where Spiritus is a tenant of the Nambé Pueblo Development Corporationopens in a new tab. The arrangement shows how tribal lands can host emerging climate technology and bring new economic activity to the region.

New York Congresswoman visits first-of-a-kind industrial mineral technology demonstration

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, who represents New York's 24th district, toured Travertine's demonstration facility in Ontario, New York. She serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Travertineopens in a new tab combines direct air capture with mineralization. The facility uses mining byproducts to electrochemically recycle sulfuric acid while permanently storing atmospheric carbon. Sulfuric acid is a key industrial input, and the process turns hazardous liabilities into inputs for products like batteries and fertilizers. The approach responds to ongoing global supply chain volatility. The facility operates around the clock, offering a glimpse of the broader potential for carbon mineralization across the country.