The draft would require 6 percent emission reductions by 2020, compared to 19 percent in the Senate bill. But the caps would accelerate in later years to require 80 percent reductions by 2050, which is actually faster than the total proposed reductions in the Senate version. The eighty percent reduction by 2050 would also matched the proposed targets released by Democratic candidate for President, Barack Obama.

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According to the EPA, the annual cost associated with the implementation of the rule are estimated to be around $15 million.

“Today’s proposal paves the way for technologies that would protect public health and help reduce the effects of climate change,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “With proper site selection and management, geologic sequestration could play a major role in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

EPA’s proposed regulation creates a national framework for the injection of carbon dioxide underground and protection of underground drinking water resources. The agency acted under the Clean Water Act because injecting carbon dioxide could push pollutants into underground drinking water supplies, according to Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant EPA administrator for water. The rule would create a new class of injection wells under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program.

According to an EPA Factsheet (EPA 816-F-08-031), the new monitoring rule is needed because:

“The relative buoyancy of CO2, its corrosivity in the presence of water, the potential presence of impurities in captured CO2, its mobility within subsurface formations, and large injection volumes anticipated at full scale deployment warrant specific requirements tailored to this new practice.”

The rule, which would apply to well owners and operators, would require monitoring to trace the chemical, squeezed down into liquid form. “A cornerstone of this rule is that the carbon dioxide stays where it is put, and not leak or be released to the surface,” Mr. Grumbles said.

EPA is requesting public comments on the proposed rule for 120 days.

Other posts on carbon and carbon policy:

• “Wyoming Passes Carbon Capture and Sequestration Legislation”
• “CO2 Capture and Technology of the Future”
• “British Columbia Begins Taxing Carbon”

Photo: thewritingzone via flickr under a Creative Commons License

The carbon tax, introduced in the Feb. 19 budget, taxes carbon-based fuels like gasoline, diesel, natural gas and home heating fuel. The rate of taxation is $10 (Can.) per ton of greenhouse gases generated. The carbon tax will rise $5 a ton for the next four years until it hits $30 per ton in 2012. The tax increase works out to an extra 2.4 cents a liter on gasoline, increasing to 7.24 cents per liter by 2012.

The government has said all carbon tax revenue (roughly $1.8 billion over three years) will be returned to British Columbians through reductions to income and business taxes. But with rising gasoline prices, the addition of the new carbon tax will certainly be making some British Columbian drivers cringe when they fill up at the pump.

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Even though EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson agreed with the court’s findings and proposed motor vehicle regulation to the Department of Transportation back in December, the agency has not evaluated dangers nor proposed any regulations - and is not expected to.

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