Texas Crawls Towards Primacy for CCS Permits

Carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”) projects represent a critical pillar in many companies’ strategies to navigate the low-carbon transition. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) delays in issuing permits authorizing CCS projects has hampered development. This permitting logjam includes both EPA’s direct issuance of permits and its review and approval of individual states’ applications for delegated authority to issue permits under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) Program. Texas is in the process of seeking primacy to issue Class VI permits under the UIC program, formally submitting a primacy application on December 19, 2022. Since then, however, it has languished in the “pre-application” phase. Earlier this month, the Texas Railroad Commission (“RRC”) finalized new amendments to further align its existing Class VI regulations with federal requirements, taking what hopefully represents a material next step in its efforts to obtain primacy.