The Department of Energy’s (DOE) program began last year and is a nationwide network of federal, state, and private sector partnerships to determine technologies, regulations, and infrastructure for future carbon capture, storage and sequestration in different areas of the country.
The additional members mean the partnerships now include leaders from 154 organizations spanning 40 states, three Indian nations, and two Canadian provinces.
Virginia joined the Southeast regional partnership and Texas, already a member of the Southwest partnership, also joined the Southeast contingent to look at carbon capture and sequestration opportunities in the Gulf Coast area.
The major objectives of the partnership are to describe carbon sources, sinks, and transport requirements; to evaluate the lifecycle of storage options; to assess environmental risk; and to develop measuring, monitoring, and verification protocols.
The Plains CO2 reduction partnership also expanded with the addition of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin.
Michigan and Maryland joined Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to expand the Midwest partnership which will identify greenhouse gas sources in its region and determine the technical feasibility and cost of capturing and sequestering these emissions in deep geologic formations, agricultural forests, and degraded land systems.
Existing regulations and policies will be examined to determine if they hinder the cost-effectiveness of CO2 sequestration options, and ways to overcome these barriers will be outlined.
