Senate Bill 34 (Carbon Capture and Storage Act of 2013), which would close certain key legal gaps that hinder carbon capture and storage in California, lost its sponsor late last week when Senator Rubio (D – East Bakersfield) suddenly resigned. Earlier this week the Senate Environmental Quality Committee decided to postpone its hearing on SB 34. SB 34 is virtually identical to SB 1139 (Carbon Capture and Storage Act of 2012), which stalled in the Assembly last year. (See prior blog post concerning SB 1139.)
SB 34 addresses a number of issues identified in the white papers—Approaches to Pore Space Rights, Carbon Dioxide Pipelines, and Enhanced Oil Recovery as Carbon Dioxide Sequestration—that Stoel Rives prepared for the California Carbon Capture and Storage Review Panel in 2010. For more information on SB 34, please contact Mike Mills, Jerry Fish, or Eric Martin.
Co-Authored by Mike Mills, Jerry Fish and Eric Martin