SB3441 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 37551 BDA 67675 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB3441

Introduced 2/8/2024, by Sen. Steve McClure

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Safety Moratorium on Carbon Dioxide Pipelines Act. Establishes a temporary statewide moratorium on construction of carbon dioxide pipelines until certain studies at the federal and State levels are conducted. Details requirements for the State study regarding the safety of carbon dioxide pipelines, which include receiving input from first responders, analyzing pipeline ruptures or leaks in a variety of settings, and recommending setbacks and funding based on that analysis. Provides that pending applications for carbon dioxide pipelines shall be held in abeyance. Provides for expiration of the temporary moratorium after four years, or when new safety standards pursuant to required studies are established, or upon adoption of certain ensuing legislation, which is detailed as including setbacks for safe evacuation, specifications limiting eminent domain, funding for first responders, funding for required actions at carbon sequestration sites, expanded monitoring at carbon sequestration sites, specification for long-term liability in the event of a disaster, a ban on the use of captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery, emissions limits for air pollutants, requirements regarding greenhouse gas lifecycle analysis with prohibitions on carbon capture unless certain showings are made, a mandate that alternatives to capture be evaluated, public participation opportunities, and additional protections, including a prohibition related to protecting "sole source" aquifers designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Defines terms. Makes findings. Effective immediately.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning utilities.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Safety Moratorium on Carbon Dioxide Pipelines Act.

Section 5. Legislative findings. The General Assembly finds and determines that:

(1) Pipelines are being proposed in the State by companies for the purposes of transportation of carbon dioxide both from within the State and from locations outside the State;

(2) The transport of carbon dioxide via pipelines significantly affects landowners' rights to enjoy their property. Carbon dioxide pipelines may impede access to property and fields, place permanent restrictions on the use of land, reduce crop yield from construction activities, and pose a risk of grave harm to humans, livestock, and other animals if there is a release of carbon dioxide;

(3) As specified in the Carbon Dioxide Transportation and Sequestration Act, regulation of the construction, maintenance, and operation of pipelines transporting carbon dioxide is within the statutory and regulatory jurisdiction of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) of the federal Department of Transportation; and

(4) in response to a major carbon dioxide pipeline failure in Satartia, Mississippi in 2020 that resulted in local evacuations and caused almost 50 people to seek medical attention, PHMSA conducted an investigation of the risks to human health and the environment presented by carbon dioxide pipelines. PHMSA announced, on May 26, 2022, that to strengthen CO₂ pipeline safety and oversight, PHMSA is initiating new rulemaking to update standards for carbon dioxide pipelines, including requirements related to improved safety, oversight, and emergency preparedness and response.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Carbon dioxide pipeline" or "pipeline" means the in-state portion of a pipeline, including appurtenant facilities, property rights, and easements, that are used exclusively for the purpose of transporting carbon dioxide to a point of sale, storage, or another carbon management application.

"Commission" means the Illinois Commerce Commission.

"Criteria pollutants" are the pollutants that have been identified as "criteria pollutants" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under Section 108 of the Clean Air Act.

"Hazardous air pollutants" are the pollutants that have been identified as "hazardous air pollutants" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act.

"Sequester" has the meaning given to that term in Section 1-10 of the Illinois Power Agency Act.

"Sequestration" means to sequester or be sequestered.

"Sequestration facility" means the carbon dioxide sequestration reservoir, underground equipment, and surface facilities and equipment used or proposed to be used in a geologic storage operation. "Sequestration facility" includes an injection well and equipment used to connect the surface facility and equipment to the carbon dioxide sequestration reservoir and underground equipment. "Sequestration facility" does not include pipelines used to transport carbon dioxide to a sequestration facility.

"Transportation" or "transport" means the physical movement of carbon dioxide by pipeline conducted for a person's or an entity's own use or account or the use or account of another person, persons, or entity.

Section 15. Temporary statewide moratorium on construction of carbon dioxide pipelines.

(a) No certificate of authority for the construction and operation of a pipeline intended for transport of carbon dioxide shall be issued by the Commission until:

(1) the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has adopted revised federal safety standards for transportation of carbon dioxide; and

(2) the State of Illinois has commissioned and finalized a study, which shall be made available to the public, determining how far carbon dioxide pipelines must be separated from livestock, residences, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, places of worship, jails, prisons, businesses, industry, and other locations where people congregate, in order to ensure adequate time for the safe evacuation or rescue of people and animals in the event of a pipeline rupture or leak. The study shall:

(A) include input from first responders, including both voluntary and paid professionals, law enforcement officials, medical and veterinary professionals; transportation experts; carbon dioxide pipeline engineers; meteorologists, geologists, persons trained in computational fluid dynamic modeling and other modeling of carbon dioxide plumes, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, Illinois Department of Public Health, County Emergency Management Agencies, township officials, county boards, village boards, city councils, and the general public;

(B) evaluate CO₂ concentrations resulting from pipeline ruptures or leaks in a variety of urban, suburban, and rural settings present in Illinois, including concentrations resulting from leaks or ruptures of carbon dioxide pipelines with varying diameters and carbon dioxide flow rates, based on predictions of the most precise available computational fluid dynamic model of CO₂ plume movement;

(C) recommend setbacks for each such setting, pipeline diameter, and flow rate, based on: (1) the concentrations of CO₂ released in the event of a leak or rupture, (2) the time humans and, where appropriate, livestock would be exposed to those concentrations, and (3) the ability to, and time necessary to, self-evacuate or be rescued before oxygen deprivation leads to serious health effects, including, but not limited to, convulsions, unconsciousness, coma, or death; among other considerations, the study shall account for the decreased mobility of elderly persons, young children, persons who depend primarily on public transportation, incarcerated persons, and persons gathered in spaces where large numbers of people assemble, as well as the availability of electric vehicles or other transport options that do not use combustion engines; and

(D) recommend an initial amount of funding sufficient to provide first responders, medical professionals, local governments, and other entities involved in the evacuation or rescue of persons potentially affected by a CO₂ pipeline rupture with the equipment, training, staffing, and other items necessary to carry out safe and timely evacuations and rescues in the event of a rupture; the study shall also recommend fees to be required of pipeline operators to ensure availability of the necessary sum, as well as a method for updating the amount of funding and fee changes to account for changing costs, inflation, and other relevant factors.

(b) Any application for a certificate of authority to construct or operate a pipeline intended for transportation of carbon dioxide that, as of the effective date of this Act, is pending before the Commission shall (1) be held in abeyance, without prejudice, until the revised safety standards and study specified in subsection (a) have been finalized or the temporary moratorium has expired as provided herein, and (2) will be subject to any revised safety standards if adopted in legislation.

(c) The temporary moratorium is inoperative when any of the following events occur:

(1) Four years have passed since this Act's effective date;

(2) Both the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's new safety standards and the study required by subsection (a)(2) have been finalized; or

(3) The State of Illinois has adopted comprehensive legislation regulating the capture, transport, and sequestration of carbon dioxide in Illinois, which legislation includes, among other things:

(A) setbacks allowing for the safe evacuation or rescue of persons and animals in the event of the rupture or leak of a carbon dioxide pipeline;

(B) specifications limiting the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines and limiting the use of property amalgamation for carbon dioxide sequestration;

(C) the establishment and ongoing funding of an emergency fund provided by entities that transport or sequester CO₂ to ensure first responders are able to perform safe and timely evacuations, rescues, and other emergency response actions in the event of a carbon dioxide release from a pipeline or sequestration site;

(D) mandatory financial assurance to cover the cost of monitoring, corrective action, well-plugging, and emergency response at sequestration sites, which does not take the form of insurance, financial guarantees, financial tests, or other self-bonding mechanisms;

(E) expanded monitoring of carbon sequestration sites using more methods, and for longer duration, than the monitoring required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;

(F) specification of long-term liability in the event of a release of brine or carbon dioxide from a sequestration site;

(G) a ban on the use of captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery in Illinois;

(H) emission limits that ensure that carbon capture does not contribute to significant increases in emissions of criteria pollutants or hazardous air pollutants at facilities from which carbon is captured or facilities that power capture;

(I) a mandate for a greenhouse gas life cycle analysis for each facility from which carbon dioxide is captured and a prohibition on carbon capture unless the company seeking to capture carbon demonstrates that the mass of carbon dioxide sequestered from the project will be greater than the mass of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the lifecycle of capture, transport, and storage of that carbon dioxide;

(J) a mandate that alternatives to capture be evaluated, including, but not limited to, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and battery storage, when the capture facility is a power plant; and electric-battery powered vehicles when the capture facility produces fuel; the evaluation of alternatives shall compare the greenhouse gas pollution, water use and water quality impacts, air pollution impacts, and generation of waste of each alternative to those of the proposed capture, transport, and sequestration of the CO₂;

(K) robust public participation opportunities for all carbon capture, pipeline, and sequestration projects in Illinois and public disclosure of all documentation; and

(L) additional protections, potentially including prohibition of CO₂ pipelines and sequestration proximate to drinking water aquifers designated as sole source aquifers by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Section 20. Repealer. This Act is repealed 4 years after its effective date.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.