Managing the risks of geologic carbon sequestration: A regulatory and legal analysis

With increasing international willingness to act over rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the political impetus for reducing CO 2 emissions is growing. To meet the long-term goal of atmospheric stabilization of CO2 levels, a major technological transformation must occur in the energy sector. One strategy to achieve this is carbon capture and sequestration. Carbon dioxide is first captured from power plants or industrial sources and then sequestered deep underground, into depleted oil and gas reservoirs, saline aquifers, or unminable coal seams. Geologic sequestration could be coupled with fossil fuel use to make electricity, hydrogen, or transportation fuels with no net emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. Geologic sequestration of CO2 (GS) is defined as injecting CO2 into deep (greater than ∼1 km) geologic formations for the explicit purpose of avoiding atmospheric emission of CO2.; Resolution of regulatory and legal uncertainty for geologic sequestration of CO2 is a key prerequisite for GS adoption and success. This research focuses on the regulatory and legal context within which GS will take place and seeks to create linkages between actual risk and a potential regulatory framework. Problematic areas with the existing regulatory structure are identified and alternatives are evaluated. Identification of these issues now can help to ensure that research is focused on answering questions that future regulatory regimes will need to address.; The nature, if not the magnitude, of risks from GS are well understood: leakage to the surface or near surface could harm human or ecosystem health, injected CO2 could, either directly or indirectly affect groundwater and hydrocarbon resources. Aligning the known risks for GS with an appropriate regulatory structure is the major contribution of this work. Identifying how a GS project would be regulated now and analyzing where the gaps are, and identifying possible pathways, given specific risk management parameters, is key. The current regulatory structure covers transportation, and underground injection, but not long-term monitoring or verification. Legal considerations for GS, focusing on property rights and site creation are also explored.