Bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus sends Letter to EPA Regarding Permitting of  Class VI Storage Wells

On April 2, bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus Co-chairs Representatives Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06), sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan about the importance of deploying US carbon storage infrastructure in a timely and efficient manner to combat the worst impacts of the climate crisis. The letter, signed by Caucus Members Representatives Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-08), David Valadao (R-CA-22), Mike Lawler (R-NY-17), Scott Peters (D-CA-50), and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY-04), also expressed concerns regarding delays in the permitting of individual Class VI wells and the processing of state primacy applications. In an effort to identify potential bottlenecks in the process, the bipartisan group posed a series of questions for EPA to respond to by sharing additional information about the current review process. Read the letter in full here.

Commercial interest in carbon management technologies is growing rapidly thanks to robust and bipartisan federal support for economywide deployment of these climate-essential technologies, including the historic investments made in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the essential enhancements to the federal Section 45Q tax credit enacted in 2022. In direct response to investments to bolster the deployment of carbon management technologies, since 2018 more than 200 projects have been announced, with 59 announced in 2023 alone. These projects span the full technology value chain – from capturing carbon from industry and power to capturing carbon directly from the atmosphere – as well as all stages of project development – from pilot scale and feasibility up to commercial scale projects.

To date, the EPA has permitted four Class VI wells with draft permits for four additional wells pending. With the influx of project announcements over the last several years, as of March 2024, there are 128 individual well permit applications for 43 projects currently pending at EPA. The notable increase in project applications to obtain Class VI Well permits, as well as the growing interest from states in applying for primacy, continues to underscore the importance of federal and state efforts to prioritize the timely review of state primacy and individual Class VI well applications.

As project deployment continues to expand significantly in direct response to historic levels of federal policy support for the technology, it remains essential that the supportive infrastructure, permitting and regulatory regime required to enable the growth of this industry is in place with the resources and staffing necessary to execute these projects.

Read More: Geologic Storage’s Role in Scaling Carbon Management

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The Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, conservation and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economywide, commercial scale deployment of carbon management technologies. This includes carbon capture, removal, transport, reuse, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air. Members of the Coalition work together to advocate for the full portfolio of policies required to commercialize a domestic carbon management sector and inform policymakers as well as stakeholders on the essential role this suite of technologies must play in achieving these shared objectives.