WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed approving Texas’ application to oversee its own permitting for projects to inject carbon dioxide underground, a move long sought by that state’s regulators and oil and gas companies with projects in the wings.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Texas is best positioned to protect its drinking water while enabling lucrative CO2 injection projects to proceed.
“EPA is taking a key step to support cooperative federalism by proposing to approve Texas to permit Class VI [CO2 injection] wells in the state,” Zeldin said in a statement.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Mark Porter)