Thursday, June 4, 2009

FRAMEWORK FOR GEOLOGICAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION ON PUBLIC LAND

This Report to Congress submitted to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate by U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in Consultation with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Compliance with Section 714 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-140, H.R.6) finds:

First, a proposed regulatory framework must recognize carbon dioxide (CO2) as a commodity, resource, contaminant, waste, or pollutant.

Second, carbon sequestration may potentially conflict with other land uses including existing and future mines, oil and gas fields, coal resources, geothermal fields, and drinking water sources.

Third, a proposed statutory and regulatory framework must recognize the long-term liability of any permitting decision to sequester CO2 and the required commitment for stewardship of facilities over an extended period of time. The scope of liability and term of stewardship will be among the longest ever attempted, lasting up to thousands of years or more.

And lastly, geological carbon sequestration on split estate lands or lands where the surface is managed by other Federal agencies presents other complications due to ownership issues of pore space and limitations that may need to be placed on surface and subsurface uses to ensure integrity of storage.

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