CO2 Pipelines Are Coming. A Pipeline Safety Expert Says We’re Not Ready.

by Emily Pontecorvo (Grist) Companies want to build pipelines to capture and store carbon, but a new report warns that regulators aren’t prepared. -- ... But as the number of pipeline proposals multiplies, a new report commissioned by the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group, warns that CO2 pipeline regulations aren’t up to the task of keeping communities safe.

“The country is ill prepared for the increase of CO2 pipeline mileage being driven by federal CCS policy,” writes report author Richard Kuprewicz, an independent pipeline safety consultant hired by the Pipeline Safety Trust. “Federal pipeline safety regulations need to be quickly changed to rise to this new challenge, and to assure that the public has confidence in the federal pipeline safety regulations.”

Pipeline safety is overseen by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The agency began regulating carbon dioxide pipelines in 1991. Today, there are just over 5,000 miles of CO2 pipelines in the U.S., most of which deliver CO2 to oil fields, where companies pump it underground to stimulate oil production. But researchers assert that capturing carbon dioxide from industrial facilities and sucking CO2 directly from the air will be essential tools to tackle climate change. In order to deliver that CO2 to sites where it can be permanently sequestered underground, they estimate the U.S. could need between 30,000 and 65,000 miles of pipeline.

In addition to urging PHMSA to update how potential impact areas are assessed, the Kuprewicz report recommends that PHMSA require pipeline operators to inject an odorant into CO2 pipelines, as is standard for natural gas pipelines, to help alert the public to potentially dangerous leaks. It proposes new requirements for informing and training local officials and emergency responders on the unique dangers posed by a CO2 release. It also recommends setting purity standards for the CO2 transported by pipelines, as impurities can introduce additional risks. READ MORE

Excerpt from E&E News: Currently, there are about 5,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipelines, mostly for enhanced recovery of oil. If carbon capture and storage projects were to increase significantly, the CO2 pipeline network also would need to increase.

Movement toward updated safety rules is “a good sign,” said Jessica Oglesby, a spokesperson for the Global CCS Institute, a think tank whose goal is to accelerate carbon capture deployment.

“It is an acknowledgement of the growing importance of CO2 pipelines and that the length of the network will likely increase in the future,” Oglesby said in an email.

The Carbon Capture Coalition’s Stolark called the incident in Satartia “terrible” and something that shouldn’t have happened. She added that the coalition is “glad that PHMSA is taking the existing rules very seriously and looking at additional tweaks to ensure that the pipelines remain as safe as possible.”

Summit Carbon Solutions, which is proposing the biggest of several projects in the Midwest, is “closely reviewing” PHMSA’s findings on the Mississippi rupture, said company spokesperson Jesse Harris.

The Summit project is to take captured CO2 from ethanol plants and other facilities across the Midwest and sequester it in North Dakota. Harris stressed that the plan is very different from Denbury’s enhanced oil recovery operations.

“Our project will compress, transport and store carbon dioxide, which is nonexplosive and nonflammable,” Harris said in an emailed statement. The hydrogen sulfide that contaminated Denbury’s CO2, he noted, is “highly toxic and flammable.” READ MORE

Excerpt from U.S. Department of Energy: DOE will incorporate PHMSA’s guidance into its research, development, demonstration, and deployment portfolio as we work to ensure the continued safe operations of commercial CO₂ pipelines in the United States.

The advancement of essential CO₂ transport infrastructure and carbon management technologies will be required, collectively, to help the nation achieve deep decarbonization and reduce CO₂ emissions that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. To move toward these goals, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides DOE with nearly $100 million to advance front-end engineering and design of CO₂ transport infrastructure. This will support broader efforts to develop technologies for carbon capture and removal across a diverse range of industries and regions.

Additionally, DOE’s Loan Programs Office and Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management will coordinate the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Program Account, which is allocated $2.1 billion to finance infrastructure to transport CO₂ captured from industrial facilities, power plants, and future direct air capture facilities to appropriate locations for permanent geologic storage.

These DOE-wide deployment efforts, alongside PHMSA’s new pipeline safety measures, further underscore the importance of the Administration’s priority to addressing the climate crisis and achieving net-zero emissions.

Please Note: PHMSA establishes pipeline safety regulations at the Federal level. DOE does not have regulatory oversight of CO₂ pipeline safety. READ MORE