The world’s largest carbon removal project was scheduled to break ground in Louisiana in 2025 and begin removing climate pollution from the sky next year.
But preliminary work on the $1 billion development, known as Project Cypress, has stalled, and companies working on the project have remained silent amid uncertainty over the up to $550 million status the Biden administration-era Department of Energy has given the project.
It’s been more than 500 days since direct air capture startups ClimeWorks and Heirloom Carbon Technology and scientific nonprofit Battelle posted updates about the project. The team’s last announcement came before the November 2024 election of President Donald Trump, who has claimed global warming is a “hoax” and rejected efforts to tackle the issue as a “fraud.”
Project Cypress is designed to pump one million tons of global warming CO2 from the sky each year and permanently store it underground in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s congressional district.
Occidental Petroleum, which plans to build a similarly large project with $500 million in DOE funding, has also remained mum about its plans to build a DAC hub in South Texas. The last time company executives discussed the development with investors was in August 2025, when CEO Vicki Holub said the company was not yet working on it.
Both megaprojects now appear to be stalled, according to two former Energy Department officials who oversaw the agency’s direct air capture efforts under President Trump and former President Joe Biden. The DOE award, aimed at mitigating the financial risks of the first-of-its-kind project, has been under review by the Trump administration since May last year, with no end in sight.
Noah Deitch, who served as deputy assistant secretary for carbon management at the Department of Energy in the Biden administration, said that during the Trump administration, “DOE didn’t have a clear strategy for the DAC hub.” “Uncertainty is preventing the industry from making confident decisions about how to proceed with projects.”
The DOE did not respond to requests for comment.
Companies involved in the hub are pinning their hopes on federal funding even as private support for carbon removal and other technologies aimed at curbing climate change declines. Total venture capital invested in climate technology fell by $600 million last year to $42.2 billion, according to financial data firm Pitchbook. Investment in clean technology has fallen for the fourth consecutive year, with funding at its lowest level since 2020.
The biggest question looming over the project is how long companies can afford to wait, according to two former Energy Department officials.
The funding holdup “isn’t necessarily a death sentence for a site, but it’s tougher in Cypress than it is in South Texas,” said Grant Faber, who served as the Department of Energy’s direct air capture site program manager until he was fired last March as part of President Trump’s probationary staff purge.
“Project Cypress includes startups that need to demonstrate continued traction (and) are not yet profitable,” explained Faber, who currently works for carbon removal standards company Absolute Climate. “Occidental is better capitalized, has more project development resources and expertise, and has ties to the Trump administration.”
Holub, Occidental’s chief executive, has dined with the president and made donations to him. During the most recent presidential campaign, she was one of about 20 oil company CEOs who attended Trump’s April 2024 dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Hollub also co-hosted a Trump fundraiser a month later, and Occidental sent $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Holub has discussed funding for direct air capture hubs with President Trump. |Kamran Jebreili/AP
He repeatedly suggested to investors that President Trump would not block federal support for direct air capture technology.
At a financial results conference in late November 2024, Hollub said, “I think the election of Mr. Trump as the next president will be very positive, especially for the direct capture of the airline industry.”
“President Trump knows this business case. I’ve had several discussions with him,” she added during a February 2025 earnings call. “People around him understand that we need at least some initial funding to advance this technology.”
Occidental is “advancing design efforts for the South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub,” spokesman William Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We believe DAC technology is a critical domestic energy infrastructure that can help strengthen energy security and provide new opportunities for economic growth.”
CrimeWorks remains “strongly committed to Project Cypress in the United States,” spokesman Tristan Lebreu said in an email. He directed specific questions about development progress to Battelle, which is coordinating the effort.
Mr. Battelle did not respond to questions. Heirloom declined to comment.
The hub has bipartisan roots.
DOE’s Direct Air Capture Hub Program was created by the bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021 in response to scientific research that determined the world needs to begin building large-scale carbon removal developments while reducing its dependence on oil, gas, and coal to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
At the time, DAC was the most advanced carbon removal technology. It also produces a stream of pure CO2, making it the easiest to measure its effectiveness in reducing climate pollution.
The Infrastructure Act provided $3.5 billion to fund the construction of four direct air capture hubs, each capable of removing at least 1 million tons of CO2 from the sky annually. Project Cypress and Occidental’s South Texas developments were the first two hubs selected by the agency in August 2023. DOE also provided nearly $100 million in matching funds to 19 other DAC proposals that were in early stages of development.
At Heirloom’s facility in Tracy, California, stacks of crushed limestone absorb carbon dioxide. |Debra Kahn/Politico
After President Trump returned to office in January 2025, the White House suspended all climate-related spending programs. This unprecedented measure was later rejected by several courts. Then, last May, Energy Secretary Chris Wright launched a sweeping audit of $15 billion in funding approved under the Biden administration, resulting in $7.6 billion in agency spending being halted. Almost half of DOE’s selected direct air capture projects lost government support.
The award for Project Cypress and the South Texas hub was included on the Department of Energy’s cancellation list, which was later leaked, but the department has not acted on it. Both House Speaker Johnson and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who faces re-election races in the fall, brushed aside the administration’s threats to draw support for the hub.
Development is in suspended animation. The last update from the Project Cypress team was in October 2024, when they announced a partnership between Climeworks and CO2 transportation company CapturePoint Solutions.
What should hub developers do?
Former DOE officials said there are several ways to ultimately move development forward.
Mr Deich, now a senior adviser to Carbon 180, a climate policy think tank he co-founded before joining the Biden administration, suggested the US should lower its ambitions or leave the US.
Companies may reconsider hub plans with “different economics, different scale,” he said.
“Canada currently has a policy framework that is almost as good as the United States,” Deich added, referring to national and provincial investment tax credits for direct air capture.
Some carbon removal companies have already started heading north, and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government is seen as more climate-friendly than the United States.
Days after its $12.5 million award was among the hundreds canceled by the DOE, California-based startup CarbonCapture announced plans to build its first commercial DAC plant in Canada in October 2025. Last month, Project Cypress partner Crimeworks opened its first office in Calgary. CrimeWorks spokeswoman LeBleu said the company is also pursuing opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
Another option, Deich said, is to partner with deep-pocketed commercial investors.
Meta, Amazon and other hyperscalers plan to build large data centers in Louisiana that could provide the heat and power needed to run Project Cypress.
Occidental is already looking for a backup plan. The last time Mr. Holub mentioned the South Texas hub on an earnings call was when he announced that Abu Dhabi National Oil Company had signed a deal that could provide $500 million for the megaproject.
“These agreements and the support of the U.S. Department of Energy highlight Oxy’s unique capabilities and demonstrate confidence in DAC as an investable technology that provides both reliable carbon removal and support for energy development with enhanced oil recovery in the U.S.,” he said in August 2025, referring to a potential joint venture with the UAE’s largest driller.
If those options don’t work, Absolute Climate’s Faber said companies may have no choice but to hope that the balance of power in Congress or the White House shifts in their favor. That could take until 2029.
“It’s a waste to wait three years,” he said. “But in the grand scheme of industrial project schedules, if we can get it done by then, it’s not the end of the world.”
Carlos Anchondo contributed to this report. Contact Corbin Hiar on the encrypted messaging app Signal (CorbinHiar.80).
