EPA expected to OK Texas' Class VI carbon capture primacy request
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Texas is seeking approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to receive primacy of Class VI underground injection wells for carbon capture and storage.
The facilities are used to inject carbon dioxide into wells below reservoirs storing drinking water.
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Mariam Al-Shamma, director of energy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said if the request is approved, the state will have control over the implementation and permitting of the process.
"Instead of the EPA regulating this, Texas is trying to demonstrate that they have the regulations and enforcement capabilities and monitoring capabilities in place to do this at the state level instead," Al-Shamma explained.
The state already has primacy for Class I through Class V wells. The EPA has proposed its approval of the request. The Texas Railroad Commission will be in charge of the program.
Regulators said the move will speed up the deployment of carbon capture projects in the state and reduce the number of emissions in the atmosphere. Al-Shamma pointed out carbon capture is just one of many ways to take harmful emissions out of the air.
"While industries are doing what they can to decarbonize and reduce emissions, we recognize that we’re still going to need power plants and industries that produce emissions," Al-Shamma noted. "We’d like to reduce those emissions as much as we can to keep the planet from warming further."
The Safe Water Drinking Act allows the EPA to grant authority to states with local expertise and which understand their water resources, geology, communities and opportunities for economic growth.
