Texas and federal environmental agencies are on the same page for once. Recent rules passed by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to oversee the state’s underground carbon storage industry have drawn support from environmentalists, researchers and the regulated industry.

Texas has potentially centuries’ worth of geological capacity for CO2 storage, which is well-mapped after generations of oil drilling, said supporters. Oil companies stand to benefit as well, since carbon can be used to bring up some deposits that are beyond the reach of traditional drilling.

The EPA’s rule, finalized in November, creates a new class of regulated injection well, with associated requirements to protect underground drinking water. The rule is consistent with the RRC’s new rules, finalized December 2.

Susan Hovorka, a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, and Darrick Eugene, a lobbyist for the Texas Carbon Capture and Storage Association, said that stymied federal cap-and-trade regulations would have supported enhanced oil recovery in the state by keeping the price low on CO2 supplies.

“Texas has a lot of experience doing this because we’ve had natural CO2 coming into the state from multiple sources and working well,” said Hovorka. “In fact, Texas is very hungry for additional CO2.”

Some in Washington say cap-and-trade may still have a chance for passage in the next congressional session, based on the need by large utilities and other industries for business certainty under upcoming climate change-related rules.

“There is an opportunity for the Republican Party to co-opt the message on addressing sustainability and environmental issues,” said Josh Greene, a partner at Patton Boggs LLP.

A new White House plan to shift the country to lower-carbon technology could also boost carbon storage in Texas, said Raymond Orbach, an energy technology expert who serves on Pres. Barack Obama’s Council of Advisers on Science & Technology. On November 29, the panel released a plan to boost clean tech. The report recommends several different pilot projects for carbon capture and sequestration.

Texas would benefit greatly from such research funding, said Orbach, who leads the New Energy Institute at the University of Texas. He pointed to several ongoing sequestration projects, either located in the state or operated by Texas companies and researchers. But year-to-year fluctuations in the federal research budget currently hold back some long-term endeavors.

“This drives people nuts,” he said. “I mean, how can you plan what the research budget is going to be? So the need is for a stable, off-budget source of research funding this year. It would be an investment in the country.”

Despite ongoing funding challenges, experts say new rules from the EPA and the RRC will encourage growth in Texas’ sequestration and enhanced oil recovery industries.

“By providing clarity about greenhouse gas reporting and the necessary protections for drinking water sources during carbon sequestration, we’ve cleared the way for people to use this promising technology,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a statement on the federal rule.

Underground storage involves capturing the emissions from industrial facilities, typically compressing it from into a fluid and piping it to the sequestration site, then injecting it into deep, subsurface rock formations. Eugene said that Texas has both the storage capacity and expertise to lead the rest of the world — even China — in the practice.

“Right now in Texas, we are constrained basically by the lack of CO2,” said Eugene. “And so these rules can facilitate, by both allowing people to perform enhanced oil recovery and be considered as a geological storage facility.”

Texas officials said that the private market, rather than a national carbon cap, would grow state operations.

“From what I saw [on a recent trip to China], I have no doubt that Texas – through free market, private sector collaboration – will be on the top of the list when it comes to actually accelerating the global commercialization and deployment of advanced clean energy technologies,” said Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams in a statement on the RRC’s new rule.

(Image by: Matt Mahurin)