The US Environmental Protection Agency has granted primacy to the state of Louisiana in the permitting and regulation of underground sequestration of carbon dioxide.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner of Conservation Monique M. Edwards made the announcement last week.
Permitting of such wells and operations, known as Class VI permits, is generally directly regulated by the EPA, though the EPA can grant primary regulatory authority to individual states that develop a regulatory framework that matches or exceeds the EPA’s Class VI standards, as is now the case in Louisiana’s Office of Conservation.
Gov. Edwards said that Louisiana’s geology and existing base of industry and pipeline infrastructure position the state to be a major player as a hub for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) projects, enabling industry to shrink its carbon footprint in a global market that is ever more carbon sensitive.
After the state Legislature made an adjustment to state law in 2019 to bring it in line with federal requirements, the Office of Conservation’s Injection and Mining Division (IMD) worked on preparing a package of CO2 sequestration regulations for about two years. That work included a painstaking review of all existing and proposed state regulations on CO2 sequestration in comparison to federal requirements.
The Office of Conservation made those state rules official in January 2021, a package of regulations that exceeds the EPA requirements in several areas, including:
- Louisiana will not grant waivers to injection depth requirements
- Louisiana prohibits sequestration of CO2 in salt caverns
- Louisiana will not issue area permits for multiple wells at once, requiring each individual well to be reviewed and permitted on its own
- Louisiana requires additional measures for monitoring systems and operating requirements
Commissioner Edwards said her office will be reaching out to EPA Region 6 to discuss handover of the more than 20 Class VI applications for Louisiana that have already begun the permitting process with the EPA.
