Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
05/18/12
Wyoming energy authorities this week kicked off consideration of a recent proposal from Gov. Matt Meade that calls for the state to establish pre-approved underground corridors for CO2 pipelines on federal lands. The Wyoming Pipeline Authority met earlier this week to discuss the proposal, announced by the Republican governor earlier this month as part of his broader energy strategy for the state. While the plan would not seek to build new pipelines to carry CO2 from natural and anthropogenic point sources to mature oil fields in the state for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, it would essentially pre-approve potential routes for future pipelines. Mead’s office said the plan could shave years off the environmental review process for pipeline developers that seek a permit to build on public lands, which comprises more than 40 percent of land in Wyoming. “Establishing pre-approved corridors would protect open spaces and minimize environmental impacts. Such corridors are intended to significantly shorten permitting time for future pipeline projects, which in turn would allow for enhanced oil recovery,” according to the Governor’s initial proposal earlier this month.
The Wyoming Pipeline Authority met in Casper May 16 to begin consideration of the proposal. WPA Executive Director Brian Jeffries said the Authority plans on working with the Governor’s office, industry and environmental stakeholders and members of the public in the coming months to formulate an application that can be submitted to the state office of the Bureau of Land Management—which administers the majority of public lands in Wyoming—for ideal routes. Jeffries said WPA hopes to submit the application later this year, officially kick-starting a National Environmental Protection Act approval process for right-of-ways that could take several years to complete. “We’re establishing a somewhat preapproved pathway for [developers], as opposed to one from scratch, which will likely smooth out the application process for developers,” Jeffries told GHG Monitor this week.
‘Streamline’ the Permitting Process
The move marks one of the first efforts to map out a coordinated statewide plan for designated CO2 pipeline corridors. Supporters of the plan say it will ultimately lead to a simpler and more streamlined approach for pipeline developers as they navigate the intensive permitting process for federal lands. Currently, CO2 pipeline corridors are determined separately by each of BLM’s 10 field offices in the state, which has resulted in corridors literally not linking up between districts. Pipeline developers have complained for years that the system is chaotic and hard to navigate. “There’s no question that ultimately, even if you aren’t worried about anthropogenic CO2, you still need the pipeline infrastructure because the BLM is in the process of putting together their management plans for each one of the basins, and if they are not aware that you might in the next 20 years put in a CO2 pipeline, then you’ll basically be shut out because there won’t be any corridors,” Ron Surdam, director of the Carbon Management Institute at the University of Wyoming, told GHG Monitor. “So I definitely think it’s a positive step.”
Under the plan, WPA and BLM would do much of the siting work for the corridor, and if developers choose to build a CO2 pipeline within that pre-approved space in the future they would be able to pick up the permitting process from where the state leaves off. Proponents said the policy could shave years off the approval process. Jeffries said developers would still technically be able to build pipelines wherever they choose, pending environmental approval. “What this will do is that companies will probably have an easier go of it in the future when they’re pitching the idea of a pipeline,” Jeffries said.
Officials Hope to Tap Into Big Horn Basin
Developers in the state are hoping to utilize the future corridor as a way to boost EOR operations in the Bighorn Basin in the northern portion of Wyoming, a mature oil field that could stand to produce 800 million to 2 billion additional barrels of oil from EOR. There could also be potential in the Powder River Basin in the northeast portion of the state, where there is also a major oil deposit. While most CO2 pipelines in the state use naturally-occurring CO2 from sources like the LaBarge field in southwest Wyoming, some carbon capture and storage proponents in the state have said that new EOR operations could help make CO2 from anthropogenic sources of CO2 more economical, potentially creating more of a market for CCS technology in the state.
Mead spokesman Renny MacKay said that the proposal “balances both the need to [protect] important public lands and the desire to move the permitting process forward for new pipelines in a timely manner.” Meanwhile, BLM said it is open to working with groups on the issue. “We’re always happy to work with the Governor’s office, and we’re particularly open to working with them on this issue,” a Wyoming BLM spokeswoman told GHG Monitor.
