Senate committee hears testimony on ways to streamline carbon capture
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) held a hearing this week that focused on ways to streamline the use of carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) technology.
The hearing — titled “Expanding and Accelerating the Deployment and Use of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration – featured testimony from Matt Fry, policy advisor to Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who manages the Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative. The initiative is designed to encourage and facilitate the development of a CO2 pipeline corridor.
CCUS is a process that captures carbon dioxide emissions from sources like power plants and either reuses or stores it so it will not enter the atmosphere.
At the committee hearing, chaired by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Fry outlined some of the roadblocks facing CCUS technology.
“CCUS provides us with the opportunity to treat CO2 as a valuable commodity, rather than an end product with no value,” Fry said. “However, there are substantial challenges associated with its implementation. These include rigorous and costly regulatory processes, lack of federal and state policies that incentivize CCUS, minimal financial certainty for prospective project developers, and a number of other factors.”
Regulatory hurdles for a pipeline project, for example, with a mixture of federal and state lands and private property may require up to 30 reviews, permits, and approvals from federal, state, and local authorities, Fry said.
“If a proposed project were to cross multiple states, this number would increase accordingly,” Fry added.
One of the most onerous regulatory processes comes from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), he said.
“NEPA analyses historically were completed in relatively short timeframes and at acceptable costs,” Fry said. “Unfortunately, in recent years, they have evolved in such a way that they may now take upwards of a decade and tens of millions of dollars to complete.”
To eliminate some of the hurdles, Fry said NEPA should be streamlined.
“I do not believe that we need to reinvent the wheel, rather I think we just need to make it round again,” Fry explained. “While this recommendation sounds simplistic, the reality is that it will require a significant paradigm shift as well as cultural changes. Reversing the inertia of NEPA’s current course will require significant leadership, and I submit that this committee is eminently qualified to undertake and accomplish this goal.”
One way to improve the NEPA process is through the Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative (WPCI).
“WPCI is a sound strategy to streamline the NEPA process for pipeline infrastructure, without compromising the integrity of the Act or its process,” Fry said. “The WPCI is a component of Governor Mead’s energy strategy for the State of Wyoming and it is our goal to obtain federal authorization for an intrastate pipeline network.”
The network would connect existing oil fields that can be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with CO2.
“The CO2 will be injected into existing, often ‘played-out’ oil fields, thereby increasing oil production beyond conventional recovery methods with little additional surface disturbance while ensuring safe and permanent geologic storage of CO2 in the process,” Fry detailed.
Fry said the WPCI has numerous benefits.
“Additional production of oil, gas, and liquids from EOR will generate significant royalties and taxes for federal, state, and local governments,” he said.
In addition, WPCI will provide many jobs for those building, maintaining, and operating pipelines and EOR fields. These jobs would likely be in Wyoming communities, Fry added.
