Policy Overview
Class VI Primacy is the most critical regulatory mechanism for accelerating the development of the US CCS market. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the EPA is responsible for overseeing the injection of CO2 into Class VI wells but allows qualified states to assume primary enforcement authority. As of late 2025, the program achieved massive scale with Louisiana (Feb 2024) and Texas (Dec 2025) joining North Dakota and Wyoming as primacy states.
The real-world impact of primacy is the drastic reduction in permitting timelines. While federal reviews often exceed 24 months, primacy states have demonstrated the ability to cut approval times in half. This acceleration is essential for project bankability under the 45Q tax credit, which requires construction to commence by the end of 2032. With Texas alone managing over 30 pending applications at the time of transfer, state-led primacy provides the administrative bandwidth necessary to scale the US from demonstration projects to a unified national sequestration infrastructure.