Committee approves substitute requiring carbon storage projects to protect mineral owners

The committee agreed to a committee substitute for Senate Bill 899 and voted to report it to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass.

Under the substitute, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) may issue a permit for a carbon sequestration project only if the storage operator designs the project to isolate any existing or future production from commercially valuable minerals (including coal and oil-and-gas estates) from the carbon dioxide plume. Permit applications must indicate whether the project area contains commercially valuable minerals and must include notice to mineral owners, lessees and operators. The substitute allows those mineral owners and lessees to object and requires the storage operator to address objections to the DEP's satisfaction before the permit process may proceed.

John Bain, director of government affairs for EQT Corporation, testified in favor of the substitute and told the committee the measure clarifies protections for mineral owners that earlier carbon-capture-related changes did not. "When West Virginia passed the carbon capture legislation several years ago ... minerals really weren't protected," Bain said. He told the panel the substitute functions in his view "as an oil, gas, coal bill" to protect mineral interests while making carbon storage permitting workable.

Committee counsel noted the substitute makes technical, non-substantive changes and emphasized the notice, documentation and objection provisions that the DEP would apply in permitting. The committee agreed to the substitute by voice vote and approved a motion to report it to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass.

The measure will proceed to the full Senate for further consideration.