Why Petroleum and Gas Companies Wanted State Supervision for Injection of Carbon Dioxide – The Texas Tribune

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Odessa – Texas oil companies and regulators waited years for federal permits that would allow these companies to suck carbon dioxide – the biggest contribution to climate change – from the atmosphere and injected it underground.

After taking up environmental reviews and public hearing, the Environmental Protection Agency has not yet approved any of these 17 proposals.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, based in Houston an energy company that introduced one of the most ambitious projects, has reached the stage in which the public can testify to or against the proposal-one of the last steps before the final review.

The delay has caused more calls from the oil and gas industry to transfer the organ – known as primation – to provide permits for carbon investment in the ground.

If provided, the memory will give the Texas Railway Committee, the State Agency, Regulating Oil and Gas, the ability to view, approve or refuse companies to inject carbon dioxide underground without federal contribution.

“We want to regulate our own state business,” says Katie Zimmerman, director of decarbonisation at Wood, an energy consulting firm in Houston. “EPA has many permits and they do not have enough people with the right experience so that they can process the request as quickly as we would like these projects to get off the ground.”

Ecological group leaders have also expressed concerns about the adequacy of regulatory supervision of carbon dioxide injection projects into Texas. The Commission is already managing wastewater injections. In the least cases, the excluded wells have contributed to seismic activity, sinks and leaks or blowing off the wells excluded.

Erandy Trevinho, a long -time environmentalist who co -founded the non -profit cooperation project Raices, said the Commission must prove that it could effectively regulate such permits.

“All these projects will have large investments in infrastructure, major investment in projects. This adds to the list of responsibility of the Texas Railway Committee, which they have not proven to be accurately that they are capable (handling), “Trevinho said. “We do not trust the agency to fulfill this role.”

The Commission applied in December 2022 EPA, evaluating the state’s statement, said it was still in the first of the four phases of the review. During this time, other countries received the necessary permission, some of which submitted their request after Texas – Wyoming, Louisiana, North Dakota and West Virginia.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is the science behind the capture and storage of carbon?

Carbon dioxide acts as a blanket, capturing heat into the atmosphere. Although it is a natural process that helps maintain Earth’s temperature, excessive carbon dioxide contributes to the warming planet. Increasing temperatures can lead to extreme meteorological events such as heat waves, sushi, floods and fires – all represent serious threats to human health and safety, especially in vulnerable regions.

Carbon capture is a technology designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from large industrial sources such as power plants, steel production, cement production and other industrial facilities that release greenhouse gases in their processes.

The main intent of carbon capture is to prevent carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.

One of the many ways to do this is through what is called direct air capture. Carbon dioxide is separated from other gases produced in industrial facilities through a chemical process. Once captured, the gas is compressed and transported, usually through pipelines, to a storage space that is later injected into deep underground rock formations where it can be stored permanently.

What is the primate?

The first is a term under the Safe drinking water Act, a federal law. If provided to a country, they may inspect, approve or refuse permits that allow companies to inject fluids underground. The Environmental Protection Agency administers six programs for the control of underground injections, including wastewater from oil and gas industry, industrial, municipal and agricultural waste and liquids to extract more crude oil and natural gas.

The state must submit the set of rules it intends to implement. The EPA meets with the state in this case the Texas Railway Committee to ensure the rules they set to comply with the federal government. The EPA then reviews the rules before asking the public to comment.

Texas has been in the first phase of his request for more than two years.

Why does the oil and gas industry want the state to have the first?

The groups supported by the industry said Texas should lead decarbonyizing efforts as much as production-and there is land and desire for companies to do so, but the federal supervision makes it difficult.

A spokesman for the Carbon Catch Alliance in Houston, a group consisting of some of the largest energy companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil, said the transfer of commission supervision could shorten the review process for years.

“When we talk about maintaining large amounts of carbon dioxide outside the environment, we feel that it is important to move this as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.

Zimmerman, the Darbonisation Director of Wood, said the state was in the best position to evaluate the permits for the proposed projects.

“One thing that engineers can be disappointed a little at times is that we will study these projects and we put a lot of technical work to make sure that they are as much as possible,” she said. “We did the whole analysis, but if you don’t really build, we don’t really reduce emissions.”

There is a disagreement among scientists, environmentalists and the industry about which regulatory agency should be loaded with the supervision of carbon dioxide injection.

Susan Hovorka, a researcher at the Bureau of Economic Geology, which has been studying carbon capture for decades, said the program for the injection of the underground was designed so that countries ultimately accept it.

Hovorka said it should depend on Texas, not Washington, Colombia County, to determine what proposals will be beneficial for the state’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, adding that the distrust of certain agencies should be separated from the efforts of the state to acquire the first.

“This would be a political solution for the Texas people,” Hovorka said.

Why are environmentalists concerned about the transfer of this authority to the state?

One of the main problems in environmentalists is the potential for increased seismic activity. Injection of wastewater underground is already associated with earthquakes in some areas throughout the country.

Others are worried about the potential contamination of aquifers. In Western Texas, residents rely on good water from aquifers such as Ogalala, Valley Pekos and Edward-Trinites. Environmentalists and lawyers are concerned about the effects of carbon dioxide injections on the water supply of the state – a fear that is played in Indiana.

Last March, leakage was opened on site for injection of carbon dioxide into Decare, Illinois. Operator Archer Daniels Midland found corrosion in one of its deep monitoring wells and found a leak that allows carbon dioxide and fluid to migrate deep underground. Months later, this happened again. This has led to the company temporarily stopping injections into the well.

“The anxiety is that there will be a flood of applications for permits that enter and will be provided quickly without careful consideration of environmental concerns in these areas with these new and potentially dangerous injections, especially with all these sources of drinking water,” said Alison Brock, a senior lawyer with the environmental non -profit purpose.

The EPA said that drinking water supplies in Illinois were not contaminated, but the incident caused fears from residents about the potential risks of a aquifer flywheet, which supplies water to about 850,000 people in Illinois.

Brock said injecting carbon dioxide can also threaten abandoned wells. Carbon dioxide can escape through these wells, potentially harming the soil, vegetation and even people in the affected areas.

Some experts are worried that the transfer of the authorization of the EPA authority to state agencies such as the Texas Railway Commission can lead to less strict environmental protection.

“Texas through RRC has not proven a reliable manager in terms of injection wells in the past and the addition of the Class VI program administration to its plate raises alarm bells for people and drinking water in Texas,” Brooke said.

Is the Republican Administration’s efforts to quickly track Texas?

Both leaders of the environmental and oil and gas industries say it is too early to know whether the Trump administration will favore the standards set out under its predecessor, even if the energy industry wants it.

The Biden administration set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions according to the climate change program. Biden offers tax loans under the Law on Reducing Companies Inflation for each ton of carbon dioxide, captured and permanently stored underground. The administration also has allocated $ 12 billion for new carbon storage projects.

Companies need permits to get eligible for these stimuli and to pollute the air less during oil and gas production.

The Trump administration, on the other hand, encourages fossil fuels and rejects concerns about climate change.

“This is not a priority for the current administration … So it will be interesting to see what is coming,” Brock said with Earthjustice.

What are the role of everyday texas in the discussion?

Before the EPA provides an end to the railway committee, the Texas will have a chance to share their opinions about the proposed change.

Keith Hall, Louisiana’s Energy Law Professor, said people can learn more about carbon storage and ask if the agency has enough staff to monitor the projects and apply the rules and provisions.

Hall said that after the initial reviews of the committee’s application, the rest of the process tends to move faster.

EPA did not say when he plans to hear from the public.

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