Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon Capture and Storage Basics

Injection Wells

Some states are attempting to gain regulatory control – or “primacy” – over carbondioxide (CO2) injection wells, an emerging and potentially hazardous method of storingCO2 waste from polluting industries deep underground.

This would supplant EPA authority over CO2 injection wells, and comes with great risks to the climate and environmental justice communities.

EPA regulates the construction, operation, permitting, and closure of injection wells used to place fluids and gasses underground for storage or disposal. The goal of the program is to prevent contamination of underground sources of drinking water under the Safe Drinking Waters Act as a result of the injection activity. Injection activity can range from industrial waste disposal to tapping geothermal energy.

The EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program consists of six classes of injection wells. Each well class is based on the type and depth of the injection activity, and the potential for that injection activity to result in endangerment ofUS drinking waters.

Underground injection of CO2 for purposes other than permanent storage (such asenhanced oil recovery and enhanced gas recovery) is a long-standing practice. TheClass II well program covers CO2 underground injection associated with oil andnatural gas production. However, the injection of CO2 for the purposes of permanent storage is a new practice with only two active Class VI wells in existence today.

The EPA can grant primary enforcement authority—referred to as primacy—to individual states, territories, or tribes to administer certain well classes in the UIC program in accordance with federal standards.

Environmental Concerns

CO2 injection wells, otherwise known as “Class VI” wells under EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, are used to inject carbon dioxide captured from industrial processes (e.g., steel and cement production) or energy generation (e.g.,power plants or natural gas processing facilities) into deep rock formations for long term storage. This is part of a process referred to as “carbon capture and storage” or CCS. EPA tailored Class VI program rules to specifically address the permanent storage of CO2.

Many states already have primary enforcement authority to administer Class I - V wells. There are some states and tribes with primacy for Class II wells only.

Resources

EPA Injection Control Program HERE.
EPA Monitoring of Supply, Underground Injection, and Geologic Sequestration ofCarbon Dioxide HERE.
Risks associated with CO2 storage HERE.
Kentucky Geological Survey on Oil and Gas development HERE.
Oil and Gas Data, Kentucky Geological Survey at the University of Kentucky. Link HERE.
Resource for Kentucky maps can be found at the following website HERE.
Kentucky Oil, gas, and coal mine maps HERE.
Kentucky Laws and Incentives for Natural Gas, from US Dept. of Energy (Fuels and Vehicles) HERE.

Legislative Issues and Regional Developments

During the 2020 session, lawmakers passed HB44, “An Act Relating to Key Infrastructure Assets” into law. This was anti-protesting legislation where the original Language changed the definition of “key infrastructure assets” to add natural gas or petroleum pipelines. The law as originally drafted established that tampering with, impeding, or inhibiting operations those assets in the offense of criminal mischief in the first degree. It also allowed for a civil action to be maintained against a person that compensates a person is convicted of criminal mischief in the first degree. The House-amended version removed some of the vague language about “impeding” and “inhibiting” critical infrastructure. For civil actions, it removed liability for those who knowingly “compensate or renumerate” those who violate the Act and replaced language to those who “knowingly direct or cause a person to engage in mischief that involves tampering with critical infrastructure.” The bill still has expanded criminal liability The bill does still include higher penalties for damage of a key infrastructure asset [already illegal]. KCC and our allies at KRC and ACLU worked to make these critical improvements.

The International Center for Not-For-Profit Law tracks laws that affect the right to peacefully assembly. See their protest law tracker here.

Previous Legislative Initiatives

In March, 2016 the Energy and Environment Cabinet convened the Oil and Gas Workgroup to address issues raised in the that year’s legislative session surrounding the illegal importation of wastes with enhanced concentrations of radioactive materials into Kentucky, to review current issues impacting the oil and gas industry and to suggest revisions to statutes and regulations as appropriate.

Oil And Gas Workgroup Report on Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) Associated with Oil and Gas Activities (2016RS HB563) November 30, 2016.
Report on the Safe Production, Handling and Disposal of Oil and Gas Waste, Dec. 2016.

In 2018, the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution, SR224 (Smith) which urged the U.S. Congress to support federal legislation in advancement of the Appalachian Storage Hub, a proposed $10 billion dollar infrastructure project to house natural gas liquids and related petrochemicals. The U.S. Department of Energy had granted the first part of a two application loan of $1.9 billion for the project, which is expected to include a piping system into the Ohio and Kanawha river valleys.

Appalachian Storage Hub

The Appalachian Storage Hub (ASH), also known as the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub, is a proposed mega-infrastructure project which could greatly expand unconventional oil and gas drilling (fracking) in the region. Gas and petrochemical infrastructure, such as ethane crackers, could use the natural gas to produce ethylene, which is widely used in plastics and other chemical industries. While commerce interests in the borders of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky cite the potential for job creation in the four-state region, conservation groups have raised concerns that this facility would create a proliferation of petrochemical industries that would bring public health dangers and contribute to climate change. The resolution was adopted by voice vote. KCC will continue to monitor the progress of this project.

More on the Appalachian Storage Hub:

Secretary Rick Perry announced Appalachian Ethane Storage Hub.
Federal Report Touts Appalachian Storage Hub
Full D.O.E. Report, “Ethane Storage and Distribution Hub in the U.S.” Nov. 2018
Appalachian Underground Natural Gas Storage Hub Clears a Hurdle,” West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Jan. 2018
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition page on the Appalachian Storage Hub
US Dept. of Energy Report on Appalachian Energy and Petrochemicals HERE.

Pipelines and Pipeline Safety

Natural Gas and Oil pipelines have had their fair share of recent controversy in Kentucky. In 2019, there was a catastrophic explosion of an Enbridge natural gas pipeline in Lincoln County, Kentucky. And in 2014, citizen groups spent several years challenging a proposed hazardous liquids pipeline that would have traversed more than a dozen Kentucky counties. The path of the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline would have carried natural gas liquids from the fracking fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to processing plants and export terminals along the Gulf Coast.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission’s Pipeline Safety page provides some general resources and public notifications. A grassroots coalition, of which KCC is a part, also maintains an informational website, Kentucky Beyond Fossil Fuels.