Bipartisan efforts to speed carbon capture at odds with federal staffing cuts

Updated pipeline regulations and speedier permit approvals will be key to deploying carbon capture, according to industry members, but carbon management advocates warn that federal staffing cuts threaten to undermine that goal.

For years, developers have been urging the US Environmental Protection Agency to speed up carbon storage permitting. Industry groups have also been urging the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to finalize new CO2 transportation rules, which some states have made a prerequisite for carbon pipeline development.

However, since taking office, US President Donald Trump has withdrawn recent agency actions, including PHMSA's draft rules, and he ordered a reduction in the federal workforce. In February, the EPA terminated the employment of 388 probationary staff members and placed 171 employees on administrative leave. Most of the people on administrative leave worked in environmental justice.

"Anything that the government's going to need to do and approve, it's going to require staff time," said Xan Fishman, senior managing director of the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank in Washington, DC. "There's just no way around that."

The remarks came at a press briefing hosted by the Carbon Capture Coalition, an industry advocacy group.

The capture and storage of CO2 "must be responsibly deployed at the pace and speed of growing investor and developer interest in these technologies," the coalition wrote in its 2025 federal policy wish list, published Feb. 28. "This, however, requires efficient and effective permitting grounded in robust environmental protections and community engagement."

The EPA permits CO2 injection wells — known as Class VI wells — in 46 states, with more than 160 permit applications currently under review. Class VI wells are drilled about a mile into the ground to dispose of captured CO2 permanently. However, the agency has approved only eight permits since 2014, to the frustration of industry leaders and lawmakers of both political parties.

"I mean, I'll just say that if you want an efficient permitting system, you do need a well-qualified workforce with enough staff and resources to do the job," Fishman said. "It's really important."

Delegating to states

The permitting bottleneck has led some states to apply to the EPA for Class VI well primacy, which would transfer oversight from the federal to the state level. On Jan. 17, the Biden administration granted that request to West Virginia, making it the fourth state with the authority to permit its own carbon storage projects. US Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) praised the move, adding, "It's past time that West Virginia finally has this ability."

The following Monday, however, Trump ordered the withdrawal of all rules yet to be published in the Federal Register, including the primacy decision. On Feb. 18, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin approved the rule again with revisions to the preamble, but not the text itself. The occasion was marked with a signing ceremony attended by Capito and US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a Republican who championed carbon capture as governor of North Dakota.

"Workforce is important in order to be able to get a lot of these projects off the ground," said Savvy Bowman, senior program manager for carbon management at ClearPath, an energy policy think tank. Delegating primacy to more states can alleviate some of the workload and accelerate carbon capture development, Bowman told reporters.

"I think that's where we will see a lot of potential in the next two to four years," she said.

EPA staffers must vet state Class VI regulatory programs to ensure their standards are at least as stringent as the federal government's. The process for Louisiana, granted oversight in 2023, took about two years and required the state legislature to update its statutes. Eight states' applications are pending review.

"While there can be really good efficiencies and a logical path to having more states have primacy over CO2 sequestration wells, it will take federal staff time to approve those applications," Fishman said.

Pipeline regulations

The EPA is not the only agency carbon capture advocates are waiting for.

PHMSA promised in 2022 to update its CO2 regulations in response to a 2020 pipeline rupture in Mississippi that hospitalized dozens of people. The Biden administration sent a proposed rule to the Office of the Federal Register on Jan. 15, but the draft regulations were withdrawn after Trump took office.

Separately, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is more than two years past its deadline for issuing guidance on offshore CO2 storage.

In the meantime, Illinois and California have placed moratoriums on CO2 pipeline development until the release of the final PHMSA rule. Another proposed moratorium has passed the South Dakota House of Representatives, threatening to delay Summit Carbon Solutions LLC's sprawling carbon capture project in five midwestern states. South Dakota is the last state the developer needs to secure a permit from.

Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, did not comment on the impact of federal staffing cuts. Nevertheless, Stolark called the PHMSA rule "absolutely critical," and not just to carbon capture projects in states with pipeline moratoriums.

"Generally, you don't really want to go and build something until you understand exactly how you will be regulated," Stolark said.