Alert
Alert
01.11.11
On December 10, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency promulgated final rules regulating the underground injection and geologic sequestration of large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by power plants and other industrial facilities.1 These rules, first proposed by EPA in 2008, have been issued by the agency pursuant to its authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2 and are effective as of January 10, 2011.
The rules will apply to the owners and operators of a new class of Underground Injection Control (UIC) wells that will be known as Class VI injection wells and used to inject CO2 deep into the subsurface for the purpose of the long-term storage or geologic sequestration of CO2, which is part of an overall process known as carbon capture and storage or "CCS."3 EPA believes that CCS could be a key mitigation technology for achieving domestic emissions reductions. Moreover, "establishing a supporting regulatory framework for the future development and deployment of CCS technology can provide the regulatory certainty needed to foster industry adoption of CCS."4
The New Rules
"Geologic sequestration" is now defined in the rules as "the long-term containment of a gaseous liquid, or supercritical carbon dioxide stream in subsurface geologic formations. The term does not apply to carbon dioxide treatment or transport."
Download: An Overview of EPA's New Rules Regulating the Underground Injection of Carbon Dioxide
1 The rules were published in the Federal Register at 75 Fed. Reg. 77230 (December 10, 2010). The Class VI rules are located at new subpart H of 40 CFR Part 146. Comments were submitted to EPA by a large number of interested parties including Anadarko, Eastman Chemical, the Western Business Roundtable, American Electric Power, the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil, the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council.
2 See 42 U.S.C. §300f et. seq.
3 Class VI wells have been added to the list of UIC wells that can be found at 40 CFR §144.6.
4 As stated in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, at 73 Fed. Reg. 43492 (July 25, 2008).