By TAMMY WEBBER, Associated Press

Power plants and industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global warming, are hopeful that Congress will keep tax credits for capturing the gas and storing it deep underground.

The process, called carbon capture and sequestration, is seen by many as an important way to reduce pollution during a transition to renewable energy.

But it faces criticism from some conservatives, who say it is expensive and unnecessary, and from environmentalists, who say it has consistently failed to capture as much pollution as promised and is simply a way for producers of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal to continue their use.

Here’s a closer look:

How does the process work?

Carbon dioxide is a gas produced by burning of fossil fuels. It traps heat close to the ground when released to the atmosphere, where it persists for hundreds of years and raises global temperatures.

Industries and power plants can install equipment to separate carbon dioxide from other gases before it leaves the smokestack. The carbon then is compressed and shipped — usually through a pipeline — to a location where it’s injected deep underground for long-term storage.

BKV Carbon Ventures project manager Spencer Crouch explains how the carbon capture and sequestration process works at their facility in Bridgeport, Texas, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Carbon also can be captured directly from the atmosphere using giant vacuums. Once captured, it is dissolved by chemicals or trapped by solid material.

Lauren Read, a senior vice president at BKV Corp., which built a carbon capture facility in Texas, said the company injects carbon at high pressure, forcing it almost two miles below the surface and into geological formations that can hold it for thousands of years.

The carbon can be stored in deep saline or basalt formations and unmineable coal seams. But about three-fourths of captured carbon dioxide is pumped back into oil fields to build up pressure that helps extract harder-to-reach reserves — meaning it’s not stored permanently, according to the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

BKV Carbon Ventures senior facility engineer Laura Mamazza walks at a compression station at a carbon capture and sequestration facility in Bridgeport, Texas, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

How much carbon dioxide is captured?

The most commonly used technology allows facilities to capture and store around 60% of their carbon dioxide emissions during the production process. Anything above that rate is much more difficult and expensive, according to the IEA.

Some companies have forecast carbon capture rates of 90% or more, “in practice, that has never happened,” said Alexandra Shaykevich, research manager at the Environmental Integrity Project’s Oil & Gas Watch.

That’s because it’s difficult to capture carbon dioxide from every point where it’s emitted, said Grant Hauber, a strategic adviser on energy and financial markets at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

BKV Carbon Ventures project manager Spencer Crouch looks at a compression station that’s part of a carbon capture and sequestration facility in Bridgeport, Texas, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Environmentalists also cite potential problems keeping it in the ground. For example, last year, agribusiness company Archer-Daniels-Midland discovered a leak about a mile underground at its Illinois carbon capture and storage site, prompting the state legislature this year to ban carbon sequestration above or below the Mahomet Aquifer, an important source of drinking water for about a million people.

Carbon capture can be used to help reduce emissions from hard-to-abate industries like cement and steel, but many environmentalists contend it’s less helpful when it extends the use of coal, oil and gas.

A 2021 study also found the carbon capture process emits significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s shorter-lived than carbon dioxide but traps over 80 times more heat. That happens through leaks when the gas is brought to the surface and transported to plants.

BKV Carbon Ventures senior facility engineer Laura Mamazza closes a gate on a carbon sequestration injection well pad site at a carbon capture and sequestration facility in Bridgeport, Texas, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

About 45 carbon-capture facilities operated on a commercial scale last year, capturing a combined 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — a tiny fraction of the 37.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector alone, according to the IEA.

It’s an even smaller share of all greenhouse gas emissions, which amounted to 53 gigatonnes for 2023, according to the latest report from the European Commission’s Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says one of the world’s largest carbon capture utilization and storage projects, ExxonMobil’s Shute Creek facility in Wyoming, captures only about half its carbon dioxide, and most of that is sold to oil and gas companies to pump back into oil fields.

BKV Carbon Ventures senior facility engineer Laura Mamazza stands near part of a compression station at a carbon capture and sequestration facility in Bridgeport, Texas, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Future of US tax credits is unclear

Even so, carbon capture is an important tool to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, particularly in heavy industries, said Sangeet Nepal, a technology specialist at the Carbon Capture Coalition.

Related Articles

Trump administration wants to reopen logging in Superior National Forest

GOP plan to sell more than 2 million acres of federal lands is found to violate Senate rules

If Energy Star goes away, finding energy efficient appliances will be harder. Here are some tips

Support for solar energy and offshore wind falls among Democrats and independents, poll says

Thousands still without power, cleanup continues after severe storms in northern Minnesota

“It’s not a substitution for renewables … it’s just a complementary technology,” Nepal said. “It’s one piece of a puzzle in this broad fight against the climate change.”

Experts say many projects, including proposed ammonia and hydrogen plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast, likely won’t be built without the tax credits, which Carbon Capture Coalition Executive Director Jessie Stolark says already have driven significant investment and are crucial U.S. global competitiveness.

They remain in the Senate Finance Committee’s draft reconciliation bill, after another version passed the House, though the Carbon Capture Coalition said inflation has already slashed their value and could limit projects.

Associated Press reporter Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By LEANNE ITALIE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Anna Wintour is stepping down as Vogue editor in chief but will retain editorial control over the storied magazine.

The longtime Vogue powerhouse is seeking a head of editorial content to handle more of the day-to-day operations but is holding on to plenty of power to keep her a force at the magazine that built her reputation in fashion, a person familiar with the decision said Thursday.

Wintour will remain chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue, said the person who was not authorized to speak about the change publicly. She broke the news to Vogue staff in a meeting earlier Thursday.

The news shook the fashion world and Wintour-watchers on social media amid breathless headlines that she was “stepping down” from Vogue. The new lead will report directly to Wintour in her capacity as global editorial director, the person said.

Related Articles

Prosecutors tell judge government plans to initiate removal proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia

‘A purpose in this world’: Older adults fear elimination of program that helps them find work

As ICE raids intensify, how do employers know if their workers are legal?

Prosecutor says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs thought he was above the law as he led a racketeering conspiracy

Majority of US adults support religious chaplains in public schools, a new poll shows

As chief content officer, Wintour will continue to oversee every Condé Nast brand globally, including American Vogue, Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, AD, Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, Bon Appétit, Tatler, World of Interiors, Allure and more, with the exception of The New Yorker.

Wintour also oversees the annual Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night and a major fundraiser for the fashion wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And she’ll remain involved in Vogue World, a traveling fashion and cultural event the magazine began in 2022.

Four years ago, Condé Nast changed its editorial structure, bringing together editorial teams around the world for the first time. Every market where Condé Nast operates has a head of editorial content led by a global editorial director. The new role at American Vogue is part of that reorganization. The new structure has already been rolled out at other Vogue titles around the world.

The company will not seek an editor in chief to replace Wintour at American Vogue, replacing that title with the new head of editorial content. The idea is to afford Wintour more time to tend to other titles in her portfolio.

Wintour transformed Vogue during her decades at the magazine. She was named creative director in 1983, served as editor in chief of British Vogue from 1985 to 1987 then rejoined the American title as editor in chief.

She modernized the magazine by featuring celebrities on its covers and mixing high fashion with more affordable street style. She championed emerging designers, including Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, and broadened the brand’s reach by adding new titles around the world.

By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Department of Defense is expanding a militarized zone along the southern U.S. border where troops are authorized to detain people who enter for possible federal prosecution on charges of trespassing in a national defense area.

The Air Force on Monday announced the annexation of a serpentine 250-mile stretch of the border in Texas amid a buildup of military forces under President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the border.

The newly designated national defense area along the Rio Grande spans two Texas counties and runs alongside cities, including Brownsville and McAllen. It will be treated as an extension of Joint Base San Antonio. The Air Force said it’s prepared to install warning signs immediately against entry to the area.

A military vehicle surveys the southern U.S. border on a bluff above Sunland Park, N.M., on April, 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)

The military strategy was pioneered in April along a 170-mile stretch of the border in New Mexico and expanded to a swath of western Texas in May. Hunters, hikers and humanitarian aid groups fear that they will no longer have access.

In the newest national defense area, military responsibilities include “enhanced detection and monitoring” and “temporarily detaining trespassers until they are transferred to the appropriate law enforcement authorities,” the Air Force said in a news release.

Related Articles

‘A purpose in this world’: Older adults fear elimination of program that helps them find work

Longest-serving woman in Congress says she’s not stopping anytime soon

Trump officials will give their first classified briefing to Congress on the Iran strikes

Kennedy’s advisers endorse flu vaccines — except for a few targeted by antivaccine activists

Supreme Court has 6 cases to decide, including birthright citizenship

At least three people have been directly detained by troops in New Mexico for processing by Border Patrol. More than 1,400 immigrants have been charged with incursions into the national defense areas, a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

Court challenges to the charges have met with mixed results.

The militarized border zone is a counterpoint to the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles following protests over Trump’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.

The troop deployments are testing the limits of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil.

Arrests at the border for illegal entry have decreased dramatically this year.

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Eric Adams set out Thursday to persuade skeptical voters to grant him a second term, hosting a kickoff event for his independent reelection bid after a corruption indictment, a controversial dismissal and a decision to drop out of a the Democratic primary.

Standing on the steps of City Hall, Adams sought to draw a contrast between himself and the likely Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani, casting the young liberal as a child of privilege with no real political achievements or realistic policies.

“This election is a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a silver spoon,” Adams said. “A choice between dirty fingernails and manicured nails.”

New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a campaign launch rally at City Hall, Thursday, June. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Two days ago, progressive upstart Mamdani declared a stunning Democratic primary victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the presumed favorite despite a sexual harassment scandal that forced him from office four years ago.

Results will be finalized after the city’s ranked choice vote-counting resumes July 1, and the winner advances to November’s election against candidates including Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime group.

Adams, 64, is a retired police captain who later became a state senator and Brooklyn’s borough president. He presents himself as a champion of working-class New York, public safety and an upbeat, self-believing attitude he calls “swagger” — the kind of drive that propelled a house-cleaner’s son to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s most populous metropolis.

A protester is detained by New York Police officers as New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a campaign launch rally at City Hall, Thursday, June. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Mamdani, 33, is the son of an award-winning filmmaker and an anthropology professor at Columbia University. He graduated from a private liberal arts college, worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor and had a side-hustle as a rapper before first being elected to the New York Assembly in 2020. Despite his short resume, the democratic socialist has picked up significant momentum with an energetic campaign centered on improving the cost of living.

Adams, still a registered Democrat, pulled out of the primary to run as an independent candidate in April, shortly after a federal judge dismissed the corruption case against him. Adams, who had struggled to raise money, argued the legal saga had sidelined him from the campaign trail.

Related Articles

‘A purpose in this world’: Older adults fear elimination of program that helps them find work

Longest-serving woman in Congress says she’s not stopping anytime soon

Trump officials will give their first classified briefing to Congress on the Iran strikes

Kennedy’s advisers endorse flu vaccines — except for a few targeted by antivaccine activists

Supreme Court has 6 cases to decide, including birthright citizenship

He has done little in the way of campaigning since then. But as the results in Tuesday’s primary were coming in, showing Mamdani with a commanding position, Adams underscored his own independent run with a post on social media that “the fight for New York’s future begins tonight.”

Adams has seemed to relish a general election matchup with Mamdani, whose relative political inexperience and criticisms of law enforcement could afford Adams a viable reelection lane.

Democratic nominees generally enjoy strong tailwinds in a city where about two-thirds of registered voters are Democrats. But New Yorkers elected an unaffiliated mayor as recently as 2009, when incumbent Mike Bloomberg won a third term after leaving the Republican Party.

The big question for Adams: whether he can overcome his shaky standing with voters.

He might woo moderate and business-focused Cuomo supporters uneasy about Mamdani. Though Cuomo himself is mulling an independent campaign that would put him on the general election ballot as well.