One of the task forces will be work on the assessment and permissions side of CCUS on Federal real estate, as well as in the country’s Outer continental shelf. This is an important function, as there is increasing demand for carbon dioxide storage, especially in the Gulf Coast where there are multiple projects set to come online in the coming years.

Relevant: Record Number of Carbon Capture Projects Announced Last Year – Decarbonfuse

The second task force will be focused on developing the same types of projects on non-Federal lands. Its main objectives will be to develop common models for state-level CO2 pipeline regulation and create guidelines that can be shared between states.

The applicants come from a wide range of knowledge pools and stakeholders. Developers and investors from the carbon capture industry are joined by scientists, environmental justice and pipeline safety professionals, as well as tribal, state, federal and NGO representatives.

The announcement from the White House CEQ comes amid an apparent slowdown of approvals for carbon capture projects. The bottleneck that has been highlighted by several business organizations and states is the granting of permits for Class VI wells (used for injecting CO2) by the EPA.

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Read also

“CDR Is A Sector Running Towards Regulation, Because Only It Will Make The Business Possible”

by Vasil Vele, Carbon Herald , October 10, 2023

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WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCEMENT:

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today announced members of two new task forces that will provide input to inform the responsible development of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS). The task forces, which are required by the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) Act, will provide recommendations to the Federal government on how to ensure that CCUS projects, including carbon dioxide pipelines, are permitted in an efficient manner, reflect the input and needs of a wide range of stakeholders, and deliver benefits rather than harms to local communities.

CEQ sought applications from a diverse range of candidates. The members of the new committees have experience with carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration, including on matters of environmental justice and carbon dioxide pipeline safety, and represent state, local and Tribal governments; Federal agencies; environmental non-governmental organizations; and developers or operators of CCUS projects. One task force will focus on CCUS permitting and development issues on Federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf. The other will focus on CCUS permitting and development issues on non-Federal lands.

Carbon management technologies have the potential to cut pollution in communities across the nation while creating good jobs and accelerating our efforts to meet the President’s goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Consistent with the USE IT Act, CEQ issued guidance in February 2021 to help Federal agencies advance CCUS technologies in a responsible manner that incorporates the input of communities and reflects the best available science. That guidance builds on CEQ’s June 2021 CCUS report and identifies ways to facilitate sound and transparent environmental reviews for CCUS projects.

The following individuals will be formally appointed once the task forces are chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Members of the Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration Federal Lands and Outer Continental Shelf Permitting Task Force:

• Jack Andreasen, Breakthrough Energy
• Lily R. Barkau, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
• Eric Bingham, Sweetwater County Land Use Director, Green River Wyoming
• Ken Brass, Representative, State of Louisiana
• Tristan Brown, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
• Bill Caram, Pipeline Safety Trust
• Al Collins, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, Occidental
• Indra Dahal, Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• Affie Ellis, Senator, State of Wyoming
• Matthew J. Fry, Great Plains Institute
• Raven A. Goswick, Aka Energy Group LLC
• Sallie E. Greenberg, University of Illinois, Illinois State Geological Survey
• Shannon Heyck-Williams, National Wildlife Federation
• Matt Holmes, Little Manila Rising
• Kenneth S. Jackson, Carbon-Zero US, LLC
• Jenny Joyce, ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions
• Anhar Karimjee, United States Department of Energy (DOE)
• James Kendall, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
• M. Jason Lanclos, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
• Sasha Mackler, Bipartisan Policy Center
• Timothy “Tip” A.  Meckel, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin
• Jeremy Moddrell, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry
• Julie M. Murphy, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
• Stacey L., Noem, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)
• Merldine K. Elote-Oka, Jicarilla Apache Nation
• Bruno Pigott, United States Environmental Protection Agency
• John C. Poole, Talos Energy
• Jim Powell, Southern States Energy Board
• Tara K. Righetti, University of Wyoming College of Law
• Matt Rota, Healthy Gulf
• Nichole Saunders, Environmental Defense Fund
• Jan B. Sherman, Carbonvert Inc.
• Mark Joseph Spalding, The Ocean Foundation
• Gregory Todd, Sate of Utah, State of Utah Office of Energy Development
• Sherry Tucker, CapturePoint Solutions

Members of the Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilization and Sequestration Non-Federal Lands Permitting Task Force:

• Rusty Bell, Office of Economic Transformation, Gillette Wyoming
• Laura Brannen, The Nature Conservancy
• Tristan Brown, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
• Kristin M. Carter, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Geological Survey
• Kevin C. Connors, Energy and Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota
• James Blake Canfield, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
• Andrew Duguid, Advanced Resources International
• Richard A. Esposito, Southern Company
• Catherine Coleman Flowers, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice
• S. Julio Friedmann, Carbon Direct
• Rich Garman, North Dakota Department of Commerce
• Matthew Hagen, Air Products
• Scott D. Heiner, Representative, State of Wyoming
• Kyle Henderson, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry
• Ruth M. Ivory-Moore, Global CCS Institute
• Rudra V. Kapila, Third Way
• Anhar Karimjee, United States Department of Energy (DOE)
• Lorelei Oviatt, Kern County Planning and Natural Resources
• Virginia E. Palacios, Commission Shift
• Bruno Pigott, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Jesse J. Richardson Jr, West Virginia University College of Law
• Ashleigh N. (Hildebrand) Ross, Carbon America
• Sarah J. Ryker, United States Geological Survey (USGS)
• Sarah D. Saltzer, Stanford University
• Alexander Hume Spike, Air Alliance Houston
• John W. Thompson, Clean Air Task Force
• Tyson Todd, State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration
• Keith Tracy, Elysian Carbon Management
• Michael Andrews Turner, Colorado Energy Office
• Poh Boon Ung, BP Gas & Low Carbon Energy
• Robert F. VanVoorhees, Carbon Sequestration Council
• Matthew Warren, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

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