This summer, three members of Congress, Democratic representatives Kevin Mullin (Calif.) and Andrea Salinas (Ore.), and Republican representative Carol Miller (W.Va.), introduced a bipartisan bill to encourage methane removal research.

The proposed bill is aimed at accelerating the development of technologies that capture methane directly from the atmosphere. If passed, the bill would provide $125 million — ($25 million per year for five years from 2027 to 2031) — in funding for research into methane removal. The proposal is unique in that it is the first time a bill for methane removal has been introduced into Congress, and if passed, it would put the United States at the forefront of methane removal research.

Current research efforts focus largely on preventing new emissions rather than addressing methane that is already in the atmosphere. The Methane Removal Research and Innovation Act would establish a program through the Department of Energy that would focus on the development and deployment of methane removal technologies to be brought to the marketplace. The Department of Energy would also be responsible for coordinating efforts across federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, among others, to support research and commercialization of methane removal technologies.

The public funds would be funneled toward developing multidisciplinary teams, consisting of federal employees, experts from institutions of higher education, private sector entities, and national laboratories to expand the scientific understanding of methane removal and to develop and demonstrate the commercial application of various methane removal methods and technologies. These teams would analyze existing approaches such as biological methods involving increased plant cover and the development of methane concentrators and breakdown reactors as well as explore the feasibility of new methane removal tools and approaches to assess and remove methane.

After three years, these teams would be expected to submit a report to the relevant congressional committees detailing their activity, goals, and progress toward those goals, as well as identify research limitations and provide their recommendations to advance methane removal technologies.

The bill must pass the House of Representatives and the Senate before being presented to the president to be signed into law. So, there is a long road ahead. However, the introduction of the bill itself is significant in that it highlights the importance of publicly funded research when developing solutions to large and complex problems such as climate change. Publicly funded research is subject to agency and congressional oversight, can draw on the expertise of government scientists and national labs, and allows for transparency through mechanisms such as the three-year reporting requirement.

While passage of the bill into law may still be a long way away, the introduction of a bipartisan bill emphasizing the need for a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to solve a global problem is a meaningful first step toward addressing methane reduction.