Pending Legislation

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 SB 285, authored by California State Senator Josh Becker,  seeks to create a framework for developing the state’s Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)  capacity so that the state can achieve net zero emissions by  counterbalancing the hardest-to-eliminate emissions that will still exist in 2045 after years of emission reduction measures. SB 285 establishes quality standards to ensure  that CDR solutions will provide scientifically valid carbon removal. OIF is not specifically mentioned as a CDR strategy, but is implicitly included.  OIF Alliance is actively working with Senator Becker and wholeheartedly supports this bill.

Recognizing that merely reaching net-zero emissions will not by itself be enough to ensure humanity's survival, Senator David Cortese introduced and passed (with no opposition) a Climate Restoration Resolution (SR 34) in the California Senate in July 2023. The next step is to get Congress to do the same. 

The "Removing & Sequestering Carbon Unleashed in the Environment" & Oceans Act" is a bipartisan bill that seeks funding for needed research into marine CO2 removal (mCDR), i.e. different ways of harnessing natural processes that take advantage of the ocean's immense capacity to remove CO2 from the atmosphere using photosynthesis. Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) would be included as one of those promising, nature-mimicking approaches.

 This proposed federal legislation, introduced by Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter in 2024, may be reintroduced in 2025 and would direct the Secretary of the Dept. Of Energy to set up a pilot program to continue and expand the research and development of ocean-based techniques and strategies to restore fisheries, enhance ocean health and remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere,.  The bill seeks to fund and implement the research strategy recommended by the 2022 National Academies of Sciences Report, available for FREE download below.