Performance issues and outages saw the Petra Nova CCS project in Texas, USA, shut down after only three years in operation.
Achieving stabilisation and the risk of leakage of stored carbon may become a real problem, according to some members in the scientific community.
As happens in the minerals and petroleum industries, regulators may require CCS operators to take out bonds, or maintain insurance against expenses and liabilities associated with the CCS project.
In 2007 the Federal Standing Committee on Science and Innovation recognised the need for regulation to be flexible and robust given storage may be for hundreds or thousands of years.
One approach is for financial liability and responsibility to rest with industry operators while the CCS facility is operational.
Former WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Bill Marmion, stated that it is commonly recognised across state and federal governments that the long-term liability of CCS will ultimately fall on governments.
It is then left to the state governments to legislate for onshore CCS, and those offshore, but within their state-waters.
Currently, most proposed CCS projects are co-located with the greenhouse gas emitting industry.
The Commonwealth regulates CCS under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 .
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority is responsible for approving and enforcing the environmental plans for CCS projects, and has extensive power to issue remedial directions to CCS operators.
In March 2022, the WA Government announced that a Greenhouse Gas Storage and Transport Bill will be drafted, to assist in the decarbonisation of the resource industry and to help WA reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Consultation with the resources industry and wider community will be undertaken before the bill is finalised.
A national framework is needed to cover issues such as transport, injection, monitoring and liability throughout the various stages of CCS.
CCS technology and investment has been identified by the federal government as a priority to assist Australia in meeting its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.
The Government has also recognised that scaling CCS will support emissions reduction from the more commonly known greenhouse gas emitters including power generation, oil and gas extraction and natural gas processing.
You should always obtain legal advice based on your specific circumstances before taking any action relating to matters covered by this publication.