An Important Milestone for Secure Carbon Dioxide Storage
By Joe Goffman
If we are to address climate change effectively, we need to reduce emissions of the carbon pollution that is causing our earth to warm, leading to far-reaching impacts upon our health and environment. One strategy that can allow large emitters of carbon dioxide – such as power plants or large industrial operations – to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is to deploy carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
CCS is a suite of technologies that capture carbon dioxide (CO2) at the source and inject it underground for sequestration in geologic formations. Enhanced oil recovery (where CO2 is injected to facilitate recovery of stranded oil) has been successfully used at many production fields throughout the United States and is a potential storage option.
As CCS has grown in promise and practice, we have developed standards and guidelines to protect our health and ensure that the CO2 injected underground remains there safely. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, we have comprehensive rules for both traditional enhanced oil recovery injection wells, and for wells engaged in large-scale sequestration, to ensure that CO2 injected underground does not endanger our drinking water. Our Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) has also developed a rigorous – and workable – accounting and monitoring system to measure the amount of greenhouse gases that are injected safely underground rather than emitted as air pollution. The GHGRP complements the injection well standards, and requires reporting facilities to submit a plan for reporting and verifying the amount of CO2 injected underground. Once the plan is approved, facilities report annual monitoring activities and related data. The GHGRP air-side monitoring and reporting requirements provide assurance that CO2 injected underground does not leak back into the atmosphere. Together, the comprehensive regulatory structure achieved through the injection well standards and GHGRP assure the safety and effectiveness of long-term CO2 storage.
The milestone that we’re marking is that the first such “monitoring, reporting, and verification” plan under the GHGRP was submitted by an enhanced oil recovery facility located in Texas and managed by Occidental Permian, Ltd., a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (or “Oxy”). We have recently approved the plan, which allows Oxy to begin reporting annual data to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, starting with data for 2016.
Oxy voluntarily chose to develop and submit a comprehensive plan in order to track how much carbon dioxide is being stored over the long-term. Oxy’s plan shows that our Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program framework provides value to companies, as well as to EPA and the public, to help track how much carbon dioxide is being stored and provide confidence that the carbon dioxide remains securely underground over time. Strong and transparent accounting methods are critical for measuring progress towards our nation’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. As more power plants and large facilities consider CCS as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have at the ready a proven framework to ensure accurate accounting for CO2 stored underground.
For more information on the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, see: https://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting
To see Oxy’s MRV plan, see: https://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/denver-unit
For more information about EPA’s activities to address climate change, see: https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/EPAactivities.html
May 31, 2016 @ 02:42:57
Awesome and helpful post! Thanks for sharing this post. Nice tips shared.
May 31, 2016 @ 10:37:56
Doesn’t injecting CO2 to pull out more oil defeat the purpose?
May 31, 2016 @ 10:57:02
testing reported comment submission problem
May 31, 2016 @ 10:59:48
This is not a solution. Every person must lower their CO2 emissions.
CO2 storage is is a way to fool ourselves to go on with the abnorm pollution. Esp. US, Canada and Europe must change.
No private person needs a car. We must cut global transport with ships that emitts methane gas, 23 times stronger climate gas than Co2. I am very disappointed that EPA are supporting this fantasy technology.
May 31, 2016 @ 11:25:58
Global Warming is a Scam to transfer wealth from the middle class to some very wealthy
investors. Stop taking advantage of the lower IQ people in this country.
May 31, 2016 @ 12:40:09
Reduction of carbon emission via carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) seems to be a viable solution to the problem and geologically sound underground reservoir can provide effective storage of emitted carbon. I am wondering about big cities and urban complexes where carbon emission is known to be extremely high and are also lacking voluminous space for CCS. How is this situation addressed in EPA’s present undertaking?
Jun 04, 2016 @ 13:24:00
There needs to be a change of lifestyle period! His idea is just turning one problem into another one, and probably a worse one. We need to end our dependence on oil. Congress needs to open up all the patents bought by big business and shelved that have alternative energy sources including engines. Can you imagine a world where children and animals weren’t run over, the concrete turned to a garden again. It is possible. There is enough oil stored to last for years for the very few things we can’t do without, like shunts for patients.
Jun 20, 2016 @ 13:08:10
This is not a solution.
Jun 21, 2016 @ 05:25:26
We need to find some alternative of oil and reduce our dependence on oil.
Jun 30, 2016 @ 16:05:57
Very healpful article, thank you! However I agree with grat part of the people who comment here, we must find an alternative solution!
Jun 30, 2016 @ 16:36:36
Really nice article! We must find an alternative solution…
Jul 06, 2016 @ 05:26:03
Take a pure clear water is make healthy your body and blood. As we know 70% is require water in he body so it is necessary pure water is exist in our body.
Jul 11, 2016 @ 15:51:50
Such a nice post.
Sep 22, 2016 @ 05:03:30
I do consider all the ideas you’ve presented on your post. They’re really convincing and can certainly work. Still, the posts are very brief for novices. May just you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.