The EPA on Thursday issued a final rule that conditionally excludes carbon dioxide streams from being classified as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The rule was designed to encourage the uptake of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, which coal-fired power generators will have to adopt in order to comply with impending emissions regulations on new plants. Under the rule, hazardous CO2 streams are not considered “hazardous waste” if they are captured from emission sources, are injected into Underground Injection Control Class VI wells for geologic sequestration and meet other conditions. The agency stated its belief that these waste streams do not present substantial risk to human health or the environment when appropriately managed. There has been much debate over CCS since the Obama Administration proposed its GHG rules for power plants, with some industry experts asserting the technologies won’t be viable until 2020.
