(a) Nothing in this article shall be deemed to affect the otherwise lawful right of a mineral owner to drill or bore through a carbon dioxide storage facility if done in accordance with the secretary‘s underground injection control permit rules or any other applicable legal requirements which are intended to protect the carbon dioxide storage facility against the escape of carbon dioxide.

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-11B-9

  • Carbon dioxide: means carbon dioxide produced by anthropogenic sources which is of such purity and quality that it will not compromise the safety of geologic storage and will not compromise those properties of a storage reservoir which allow the reservoir to effectively enclose and contain a stored gas. See West Virginia Code 22-11B-2
  • carbon dioxide storage: means the injection of carbon dioxide and associated constituents into subsurface geologic reservoirs intended to provide for the long-term containment of a gaseous, liquid, or supercritical carbon dioxide stream in subsurface geologic formations and thereby prevent its release into the atmosphere. See West Virginia Code 22-11B-2
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Office: means any office, division, board, agency, unit, organizational entity or component thereof within the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
  • Permit: means a Class VI underground injection control permit issued by the secretary or by the US EPA, authorizing a person or business entity to drill an injection well and to construct and operate a carbon dioxide sequestration facility. See West Virginia Code 22-11B-2
  • Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-11B-2

(b) Nothing in this article is intended to impede or impair the ability of an oil, natural gas, or coalbed methane operator to inject carbon dioxide through an approved enhanced oil, natural gas, or coalbed methane recovery project and to establish, verify, register, and sell emission reduction credits associated with the project.

(c) Subject to compliance with any applicable underground injection control regulations or permit, the Office of Oil and Gas shall have jurisdiction to review and approve of any subsequent extraction of sequestered carbon dioxide from a permitted underground carbon dioxide storage facility that is intended for commercial or industrial purposes.