The debate over energy and climate is often presented as a divisive, hyper-partisan issue. But if you know where to look, there is actually some common ground between conservatives and progressives about the best way forward.
It’s no secret that conservatives support an “all of the above” approach to energy and climate that includes carbon capture and storage technologies for fossil fuels, especially natural gas and coal.
For example, when I served in the Utah Legislature, I sponsored HB244 Geological Carbon Capture Sequestration Amendments to accelerate carbon capture projects here by putting state regulators — not the federal EPA — in charge of permitting. It passed and is now being implemented.
But on the left, you might be surprised to learn that the importance of carbon capture is also recognized by some progressives like Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado.
“I wish it was just as simple as saying there’s going to be more solar and wind,” Governor Polis said last year when signing a bill on state-level regulation of carbon capture. “That gets us to a big part of [net-zero carbon emissions], but for the final piece, if we truly seek to be net zero … we need to look at carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture and sequestration and direct air capture.”
With this level of bipartisan support, you’d think Western states like Utah and Colorado would be racing ahead with carbon capture and storage projects. But that’s not happening, because of — you guessed it — federal red tape.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been inundated with permit applications for deep underground injection wells. These wells are a critically important storage solution for carbon dioxide captured from power plants and factories. Deep injection wells are just as important for the emerging technology of direct air capture, in which carbon dioxide is pulled directly from the atmosphere.
The EPA has approved just four permits for carbon dioxide storage wells, with a backlog of roughly 140 permit applications. Under federal law, there’s a solution for this bottleneck — handing over the lead permitting authority to individual states.
But the EPA has only granted primacy to three states so far — Wyoming, North Dakota and Louisiana.
The Western Governors Association, under the leadership of Republican Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, is actively working to change this.
In early June, the WGA published a landmark report on carbon capture, which outlines a series of recommendations to clear the permitting backlog.
According to the report, 25 states and Native American tribes are seeking primacy for the permitting of carbon dioxide storage wells, including the state of Utah.
“As more states look to gain primacy, EPA should establish clear and consistent guidelines for obtaining primacy and should increase agency capacity to review state primacy applications in a more timely manner,” the report states.
But speeding up the permitting process for carbon dioxide storage wells isn’t completely in the control of the EPA. Some environmental organizations will also have to overcome their historic opposition to state-led environmental regulation of the energy industry.
For example, shortly after the release of the WGA report, environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the EPA for granting primacy to Louisiana for the permitting of carbon dioxide storage wells. The lawsuit claims EPA’s decision should be overturned because the agency “handed over authority without the required showing that Louisiana has the staff and expertise to safely run the program.”
By taking this legal action, these groups are sending the EPA and state-level regulators a clear message — any efforts to speed up permitting for carbon dioxide storage projects will be opposed. And even if they lose in court, the activist groups will be able to delay the approval of these projects for years as the process of litigation drags out.
These groups need to face reality. Delaying these projects will make the job of reducing emissions harder, not easier.
Carbon capture and storage isn’t just a critical technology for reducing emissions from power plants that currently run on coal and natural gas. It’s also essential for producing climate-friendly fuels like green hydrogen from the West’s abundant natural gas reserves.
Just as important, if activist groups can make the U.S. permitting process for carbon capture and storage projects unworkable, these projects will be pursued in other countries with much, much lower environmental standards than we take for granted in this country.
That isn’t just a bad economic outcome — it’s a bad outcome for the environment too.
(Photo courtesy of Steve Handy) Steve Handy
Steve Handy is a former Utah legislator and current Utah Director for The Western Way, an organization focused on fiscal, conservative and market-driven solutions to environmental and conservation challenges.
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