Alaska's bid to run its own carbon storage permits
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is applying to the Environmental Protection Agency for primary enforcement authority over Class VI wells, the wells used to inject carbon dioxide for permanent underground storage. If the application succeeds the state, not the federal government, would permit and police every carbon storage well in Alaska.
How the public reaches this
The state comment window closed at the end of the May 14th, 2026 hearing. The federal review of the application carries its own comment period, which has not opened.
Timeline
Sources
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2026-08-06 Tracked after a reader asked for the carbon capture approval process. The authority comes from two acts of the legislature, chapter 2 of the 2023 session laws directing the commission to seek this authority and chapter 23 of the 2024 session laws establishing the state carbon storage program. The commission held a public meeting on adopting its regulations on March 3rd, 2026 and a hearing on the application itself on May 14th, 2026, with comment closing at the end of that hearing. The commission has said it aims to complete the process in about two years, which other states' experience suggests is optimistic. This matters to the AI build out because the coal plant proposed in the Susitna watershed, tracked separately here, plans to inject its carbon dioxide into a depleted Cook Inlet gas reservoir, and these are the permits that would govern it.
Cite this
Alaska AI Docket, Alaska's bid to run its own carbon storage permits.
Tracked since August 6, 2026, last verified
August 6, 2026. https://alaskaaihq.com/docket/aogcc-class-vi-carbon-storage/ · Reuse permitted under
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