The mechanical CO2 plants they are building are just fig leaves for the fossil fuel industry. Personally, I think the eventual solution will likely be putting rock dust in agricultural land and the ocean.

Fracking was developed by federal grants to Texas universities.

One of the most dismaying research failures I know of is the Morocco effort to get bio-diesel from salt water algae. It failed because they couldn't efficiently separate the oil from the algae. If it had worked, much of the problem of CO2 would be solved. The existing fossil fuel transport, storage and distribution infrastructure could be used as is as could the ICE and jet engines, removing the need for massive mining ventures for battery materials. Also, the left over algae husks could be stored to sequester carbon.

I wonder if any federal dollars were contributed to that effort?

Along with that, I wonder why that algae, unrefined, couldn't be used in power plants and even perhaps in ship engines.

I hear that the exhaust smells like French fries.