The Nickel Report

On April 29, 2025, EPA Region 6 entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) that outlines the state’s plans for administering its Class VI injection well program related to carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration. The MOA delineates the responsibility of authority for administering all Class VI injection well activities and regulation in the State of Texas. The signing of the MOA is a significant step towards RRC’s primacy over its Class VI injection well program and represents the end of the application phase of RRC’s primacy effort and the beginning of the proposed rulemaking phase.

Over the past six years, federal and State lawmakers have done much to promote carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) - capturing carbon dioxide from an industrial source or from the air, then transporting it either for use in making new products or for underground disposal.  CCUS is considered indispensable for meeting global CO2 emission reduction targets.  Moreover, captured CO2 has tremendous potential value.

Below are some key points from two CCUS-related events in Texas last week: the annual CO₂-EOR Conference in Midland, which has been going on for almost 30 years; and a symposium our firm hosted with the University of Houston on CCUS risk management. We’ll start with the latter.

Risk management is one of the few key policy issues to facilitate carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Class VI storage facilities that has not been the beneficiary of substantial policy revision in the past few years. Stakeholders are interested in the development of policy to effectively manage the safety, performance, and liability risks associated with containment of captured and stored CO₂.