Senate approves bills to create carbon dioxide storage fund and give state primacy over CO2 pipelines

The Arkansas Senate on the floor passed two bills aimed at regulating carbon capture and transport in the state, voting to establish a carbon dioxide storage fund and to give the state oil and gas regulator authority to seek federal primacy over CO2 pipelines.

House Bill 1411, sponsored in the House and carried in the Senate by Sen. Stone, passed by a roll call of 20 yeas, 4 nays and 5 present. The bill creates a carbon dioxide storage fund and imposes a fee of 10 cents per ton of CO2 injected underground; 3 cents per ton would go to the Oil and Gas Commission for its operations and 7 cents per ton would be placed in a trust fund.

The measure’s sponsor said the bill is intended to allow chemical plants and other facilities to capture CO2 — “an unwanted byproduct” — and inject it roughly 10,000 feet underground in geologic formations intended to contain it indefinitely, rather than releasing it to the atmosphere.

Senators asked a series of technical and safety questions. Sen. Stubblefield asked whether the state already had a storage fund; Sen. Stone replied there was not and that the bill establishes one. Sen. King and others pressed about which agencies would regulate pipelines and monitoring responsibilities. Sen. Stone said the Oil and Gas Commission would oversee the program and that the fund would support oversight.

House Bill 1412, also sponsored by Stone, would allow the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to seek primacy from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate pipelines carrying captured CO2 to injection wells. That bill passed by a roll call of 29 yeas and 0 nays.

Lawmakers also discussed operational details and emergency response. Sen. Love asked about safety protocols if a CO2 line ruptures; Stone said protocols would be similar to those for existing gas or brine pipelines and noted operators maintain emergency contact numbers and right-of-way protections. Sen. Payton questioned the climate rationale and whether permanently sequestering CO2 would affect plant life; other senators characterized that as a broader climate-policy question outside the bills’ scope.

Both bills were described on the floor as agency bills with no organized opposition recorded in the Senate. Sponsors said the measures are meant to provide a regulatory framework so industries in South Arkansas and other areas can capture CO2 at the point of manufacture and transport it for underground storage rather than release it to the atmosphere.

The measures now return to the House for whatever transmittal or concurrence steps remain in the legislative process.