Carbon Capture Coalition Statement on EPA Granting Texas Primacy over Class VI Wells for Secure Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide 

The following statement may be attributed to Christian Flinn, public policy manager at the Carbon Capture Coalition (the Coalition), a non-partisan collaboration of companies, labor unions, and NGOs building support for carbon management policies. It is on the recent announcement that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed granting primary enforcement authority over Class VI wells to the state of Texas:   

“The Carbon Capture Coalition welcomes the recent announcement from the EPA that they have proposed granting primary enforcement authority (primacy) over Class VI wells to Texas, after a public comment and hearing process this summer. Texas would join Wyoming, North Dakota, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Arizona as the sixth state in the nation to be granted authority over Class VI wells. Granting primacy empowers states to manage and regulate Class VI injection wells within their jurisdiction, which importantly must meet or exceed the EPA’s requirements to qualify for Class VI primacy. 

“The EPA oversees the Class VI program to ensure that geologic carbon storage is carried out in a manner that protects human health and underground sources of drinking water, while permanently storing carbon dioxide captured from industry and power facilities, as well as directly from the atmosphere. The Class VI program is the lynchpin to scaling geologic storage of captured CO₂ to meet the anticipated storage demand from the growing carbon management industry.  

“Today, 60 projects have submitted 175 Class VI well applications to the EPA for review, and the queue continues to grow. Meanwhile, states with primacy are currently reviewing more than 30 Class VI well applications. By expanding the number of states granted primacy over Class VI wells, EPA can reduce its backlog of applications and dramatically accelerate the necessary build-out of carbon management projects throughout the country.  

“The Coalition urges EPA to continue timely and comprehensive reviews of state primacy applications and individual well applications. We look forward to working with the administration and bipartisan members of Congress to ensure the Class VI program has the necessary resources, technology, and training to efficiently complete a growing number of primacy and individual well reviews in the critical months and years ahead.” 

###  

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 and stakeholders on the essential role this suite of technologies must play in achieving these shared objectives.