The Midwest’s greatest potential reservoir to store carbon is buried deep beneath Illinois’ farmland, and state lawmakers have just hit the brakes on any plans for a carbon capture and storage tree there
A controversial technology where carbon dioxide is captured and then stored deep underground, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is a big part of the Biden administration’s push for a greener planet. And a federal rollout of massive incentives for the nascent industry has spurred a nationwide carbon sequestration gold rush. In Illinois alone, three pipelines and 22 carbon sequestration wells have already been proposed. But local farmers, landowners and environmental advocates are skeptical of the suddenly booming business and have called on the state for stricter safety regulations.
That’s what happened at the end of May.
The state’s legislatures passed the CCS Safety Act through both chambers at the tail end of the legislative session over the Memorial Day weekend. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has not yet signed the legislation, but has signaled his intention to do so.
The package includes comprehensive regulations for the state’s burgeoning carbon capture industry, including a moratorium of up to two years on pipelines transporting CO2 or until federal authorities adopt new pipeline safety guidelines. This is the first ban of its kind in the Midwest.
“It provides some really good protections for Illinois that are needed at a time when we’re not only anticipating projects — but those projects are moving forward quickly,” said Pam Richart, the co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. an environmental advocacy group that organized across southern and central Illinois.
The comprehensive package of new rules is divided into three categories: requirements for how carbon emissions must be captured, regulations around pipeline construction, and rules for what happens once the carbon is stored underground.
According to Jenny Cassel, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, a public interest environmental law organization, the legislation establishes a “do no harm standard,” which would prevent polluting facilities from pumping more emissions to take advantage of the increased federal tax credits.
The new rules do this by requiring capture facilities to store more carbon pollution than they produce. At the same time, power plants and other carbon-intensive industries must keep greenhouse gas emissions below what their permits allow.
“We shouldn’t be creating more of a problem than we’re addressing with this,” Cassel said. “And that’s what this mandate will require.”
Richart’s organization has been calling for a CO2 pipeline moratorium since it was founded in 2022. The moratorium will last two years or until the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration finalizes its long-awaited safety rules. The law also empowers Illinois’ Public Utilities Commission to supplement PHMSA’s incoming rules with expanded safety regulations.
Finally, the law fills a giant liability-shaped hole left wide open by existing federal regulations. Companies looking for carbon storage need federal permits for Class VI wells, which are used for the long-term storage of carbon dioxide. But Cassel said those permits are lacking: They provide no guidance on who is on the hook if something goes wrong, nor do they settle the question of exactly who owns the pore space, which is the geological formation used to store CO2 .
The law settles both questions: It requires companies to monitor injection sites for at least 30 years and produce publicly available safety modeling. It also requires companies to pay into a statewide emergency fund. Under the new rules, pore space belongs to its surface owner, and companies interested in utilizing it must pay surface owners a fee.
Proponents of the controversial technology maintain that if it pans out as intended, it won’t just be good for the climate — it could be a huge economic windfall for Illinois
“We could create about 14,000 jobs and about a $3 billion economic impact,” according to Mark Denzler, the president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, citing a report by the University of Illinois’ Prairie Research Institute.
Denzler said the new regulations aren’t perfect. “We didn’t get everything we wanted. The environmental advocates did not get everything they wanted. But it is a compromise,” he said. Denzler adds that at least now there is regulatory certainty, and private interests know what to expect and how to proceed.
Richart said the rules are a big step forward for protecting large parts of Illinois, but she has no plans to stop her advocacy. She points to crucial protections that have been left out of landmark legislation.
“We didn’t get the protections in place for the Mahomet aquifer,” Richart said of the sole source aquifer that serves more than 500,000 people in central Illinois and advocates worry is dangerously close to where companies want to store CO2 .
Richart says her coalition has brought together unlikely allies, and that’s because as carbon capture has begun to establish itself in the Midwest, one thing is clear: “We all recognize that there is a need to protect our land, our public health and protect our water,” she said. “All those things we can agree on.”
