New Rules On Safe Carbon Capture & Storage Technology Issued By EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a new set of regulations aimed at maintaining the environmentally safe operation of Carbon Dioxide capture and storage technologies. CCS technologies allow for the large stationary emitters of CO2 such as coal burning power plants, to collect large amounts of Carbon emissions created during the course of burning fossil fuels, and sequester them underground in large geologic formations.

These two new rules deal with the potential effects of CCS operations on drinking water reserves, and for methods of tracking the amount of Carbon these facilities are sequestering underground. Ground water resources are now protected by a new class of injection well termed Class VI under the EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program. It ensures that potential sequestion sites are located properly, constructed, tested, monitored, and closed. The second new regulation deals with the way that EPA tracks Carbon sequestering with regard to its greenhouse emissions tracking program.

The new rules are part of a larger effort by the Obama administration to overcoming the barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS technologies within the next 10 years. EPA chief Linda Jackson is quoted as saying: “Today the Obama Administration reaffirmed its commitment to leading the way in the clean energy future.  We’re taking a major step towards path breaking innovations that will reduce greenhouse gases and put America in the forefront of the clean energy economy,”


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EPA Finalizes Rules to Foster Safe Carbon Storage Technology