EPA Shifts Focus Away from Regulating Carbon to Sequestering It
EPA has announced that it will propose regulatory standards for underground injection wells at commercial-scale carbon sequestration projects tomorrow, July 15, 2008. The announcement strikes a positive note for an Administration that, only four days earlier, announced that it had no intention of taking further action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA must review and permit any project that places fluids underground for storage or disposal to ensure that the project will not endanger drinking water sources. To date, EPA has established five classes of underground injection wells, each subject to its own unique set of regulatory standards and requirements for siting, constructing, operating, and closing regulated facilities.
In the absence of a separate standard for commercial CO2 sequestration, EPA has regulated sequestration projects on a case-by-case basis. More uniform standards for carbon capture and sequestration (”CCS”) projects would provide a greater level of certainty to the CCS industry at a time when the US and other G-8 countries are placing great hopes on CCS as pillar of their respective long-term greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
EPA will release the proposed standards to the press tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., eastern time. Once available, ClimateIntel.com will make the regulations available through this site.
UPDATE 7/15/08: Carbon Sequestration Standards Proposed by EPA