DAVID BLACKMON: Lee Zeldin Should Actually Speed One Thing Up At EPA
Lee Zeldin has taken on the big job of reforming the EPA in his new role as administrator of that agency in the second Donald Trump presidency. Much of that role will involve slowing EPA’s efforts to hamper the U.S. oil…
Lee Zeldin has taken on the big job of reforming the EPA in his new role as administrator of that agency in the second Donald Trump presidency. Much of that role will involve slowing EPA’s efforts to hamper the U.S. oil and gas industry and rescind many of its heavy-handed regulatory actions of the past four years.
But just as urgent for Zeldin is to speed the agency up in one key area, that of granting primacy to interested states related to permitting what are known as Class VI injection wells, the wells which facilitate carbon capture and storage projects in the U.S. In a new report published Tuesday, big energy analytics and data firm Enverus projects a flood of permit applications for new Class VI wells in the coming months.
“We could see a massive increase in permit approvals in 2025 with more than 40 Class VI applications in line to be approved this year, potentially adding more than 100 mtpa of approved CO2 injection. It appears the wave will be hitting the U.S. soon,” said Brad Johnston, report author and analyst at EIR.
The Enverus report goes on to note that ExxonMobil recently withdrew its Class VI applications for a pair of projects based in Mississippi and Alabama in favor of focusing on its recently finalized 271,000-acre position offshore on the Texas coast of the Gulf of America. But one potential holdup in that ambition is the fact that the EPA under Biden-era Administrator Michael Reagan chose to slow-play Texas’s application for primacy over Class VI well permitting.
To help focus Zeldin’s attention on this key issue, an alliance of Texas business trade associations sent a letter to the administrator on Tuesday urging him to move quickly in the primacy delegation.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plays a critical role with CCS through its permitting for CO2 storage wells, also known as Class VI wells,” the letter says in part, adding, “Unfortunately, many projects are stalled because of inaction at EPA.”