Published August 17, 2023
By Christine Reed
Tara Righetti, a School of Energy Resources (SER) Professor of Law and the Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policies, led a collaborative, international issue about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the Oil and Gas Energy Law (OGEL) Journal with Matteo Fermeglia of Hasselt University in Belgium.
The timely special issue of the OGEL Journal addresses many of the legal challenges related to global deployment of CCS technologies and provides a snapshot of the current state of law relating to carbon sequestration internationally.
“Legislative and regulatory efforts in the United States and Europe, including the
U.S. EPA’s recently proposed new source performance standards for GHG emissions from
fossil-fuel fired power plants, make clear that CCS will be necessary to meet regulatory
requirements related to decarbonization of the oil and gas and energy sectors,” says
Righetti. “Dr. Fermeglia and I were pleased to bring together contributors from across
the globe to work on this project and to address some of the most pressing and critical
legal and regulatory issues related to safe and scalable use of CCS.”
Using support from the Occidental Chair, Fermeglia visited the University of Wyoming as the 2023 Occidental Chair Distinguished Visiting Researcher for two weeks during the spring to work on preparing the special issue and to explore expanded collaborations on research related to CCS and hydrogen in the U.S. and Europe.
The online issue features an introduction from Righetti and Fermeglia, as well as an article from SER Research Scientist Madeleine J. Lewis on her research exploring transboundary challenges of geologic carbon storage in interstate and federal pore space.
“Accomplishing carbon storage on a meaningful scale will ultimately require a regional effort,” says Lewis. “I was so thankful to have been included in this special issue to help highlight why states like Wyoming – which have made significant policy progress toward making CCS feasible – still need help from our neighbors and federal partners to adopt cohesive frameworks that allow full use of our shared storage potential.”
UW faculty, students, and staff on campus or connected to the university network by VPN can access the special issue through UW’s subscription to OGEL. UW community members off campus may be able to access the articles by contacting Tawnya Plumb at TPlumb@uwyo.edu for credentials.
Pictured top to bottom: Tara Righetti, Matteo Fermeglia, Maddie Lewis
