ARE YOU REGULATION READY? INCORPORATING STATE REGULATIONS IN CARBON CAPTURE, UTILIZATION, AND STORAGE PROJECT ASSESSMENT (Invited Presentation)

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects are more than just geology, emissions, and environmental justice. A project can live or die based on federal and state regulatory environments. As more U.S. states enact unique CCUS regulations and gain primacy over underground injection control (UIC) Class VI permitting, state regulatory environments will prove to be increasingly disparate. While there are scoping tools to assess site geology, emissions, and environmental justice, there is a gap in tools that assess regulatory disparities. The Regulatory Readiness Map Tool (RegReady) addresses this need by providing users the ability to score the impact of regulations on CCUS project readiness via an interactive web-based application.

CCUS project scoping tools synthesize risk factors from geology (e.g., reservoir and seal capacity), emissions (e.g., volume and capture cost), and environmental justice (e.g., demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental distinctions). Adding regulatory risk is crucial to determining project viability and economic success. Regulatory risk includes UIC Class VI permit application timing; state application or expressed interest in primacy; and statutes on pore space ownership, unitization, subsurface trespass, and liability. RegReady presents predetermined scores based on state-specific regulations that the user may modify at their discretion. For example, a user who is particularly concerned about a state’s lack of pore space ownership law may score that factor as a high risk.

RegReady results in state-specific regulation readiness index numbers. The resulting map is downloadable as a geographic information system (GIS) shapefile, allowing the user to integrate regulation risk with their own geology, emissions, and environmental justice risk maps. User-driven results reveal the financial risks to a project based on state-specific regulations. RegReady is simple enough for a non-technical user while providing benefits for more experienced practitioners in industry, policy, and carbon offset investing. RegReady provides a visual comparison of regulatory risk which is a critical element in defining the viability and long-term success of a project.