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News
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LCG, April 29, 2025--Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) today outlining the state’s plans to administer programs related to carbon storage wells, known as Class VI wells. The MOA signing is a required step in the RRC’s application to be granted authority to permit Class VI wells in the state of Texas. EPA is currently preparing a proposed approval of RRC’s primacy application.
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LCG, April 24, 2025--Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) announced yesterday an agreement with Calpine Corporation (Calpine) to transport and permanently store up to 2 million metric tons per annum (MTA) of CO2 from Calpine’s Baytown Energy Center, a natural gas-fired facility located near Houston, Texas. This is part of Calpine’s Baytown Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project that is designed to add CCS for the facility’s CO2 emissions. The Calpine facility could then provide a 24/7 supply of low-carbon electricity to the Texas grid plus steam to nearby industrial facilities.
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Industry News
EPA and Texas Railroad Commission Sign Memorandum of Agreement for Permitting Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide
LCG, April 29, 2025--Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) today outlining the state’s plans to administer programs related to carbon storage wells, known as Class VI wells. The MOA signing is a required step in the RRC’s application to be granted authority to permit Class VI wells in the state of Texas. EPA is currently preparing a proposed approval of RRC’s primacy application.
Class VI injection wells are used in carbon capture and storage (CCS) developments, where CO2 is captured from the exhaust stream of fossil-fired power plants (or other industrial sources), and then compressed and transported via pipeline to a storage field, where the CO2 is injected deep underground to be stored in rock formations. Prior to receiving a permit, the Class VI injection wells and formations must be tested and evaluated to ensure that geologic formations are suitable for the safe containment of CO2 for long-term storage. Currently only four states (Louisiana, North Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia (approved in February)) have primacy on Class VI wells.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), passed by Congress in 1974, requires the EPA to develop minimum federal requirements for Underground Injection Control (UIC) programs to protect underground sources of drinking water from contamination. RRC applied for the authority for permitting, enforcement and other programs associated with Class VI wells, which requires the agency to show institutional capacity and competence to administer SDWA requirements. EPA has already granted delegated authority to the RRC to administer programs for other types of injection wells.
“Through their administration of other underground injection control programs, the Texas Railroad Commission has demonstrated the ability to protect Texas’s drinking water while overseeing a variety of drilling and injection activity,” said the EPA's Regional Administrator. “I appreciate the [RRC] Chairman and her team’s cooperation throughout the Class VI primacy application process, and I look forward to continued partnership between our agencies.”
“We welcome and appreciate this collaboration with Region 6, the EPA and the White House and stand ready to further engage in building on our established successes,” said the RRC's Executive Director.
With the new Administration in the White House, the outlook for CCS project development is unclear. However, last week Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) announced an agreement with Calpine Corporation (Calpine) to transport and permanently store up to 2 million metric tons per annum (MTA) of CO2 from Calpine’s Baytown Energy Center, an existing natural gas-fired facility located near Houston, Texas. Calpine’s Baytown Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project is designed to add CCS to capture the facility’s CO2 emissions. Last year, the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) selected the Calpine project as one of three CCS projects to begin award negotiations for a total of up to $890 million.
The new Calpine agreement marks ExxonMobil’s sixth CCS customer, bringing the company’s total amount of CO2 under contract to ~16 MTA. The CO2 emissions from Calpine’s facility will flow into ExxonMobil’s extensive CO2 pipeline system that is strategically located along the U.S. Gulf Coast and supports enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as well as permanent CO2 sequestration sites.
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