An Act to amend the Indiana Code concerning natural resources (SB 442)

Declares the underground storage of carbon dioxide to be a public use and service, in the public interest, and a benefit to the welfare and people of Indiana. Authorizes the establishment of a carbon sequestration pilot project (pilot project) that will capture carbon dioxide at a proposed ammonia production facility in West Terre Haute and inject the carbon dioxide into underground strata and formations pursuant to a Class VI well permit from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an alternative to releasing the carbon dioxide into the air. Provides that if the operator of the pilot project is not able to reach an agreement with an owner of property to acquire: (1) ownership of underground strata or formations located under the surface of the property; or (2) ownership or other rights to one or more areas of the surface of the property for purposes of establishing and operating monitoring facilities required by the EPA; the operator of the pilot project may exercise the power of eminent domain to make the acquisition. Provides that the pilot project operator's acquisitions by eminent domain must be made through the law on eminent domain for gas storage, which provides that a condemnor, before condemning any underground stratum or formation, must have acquired the right to store gas in at least 60% of the stratum or formation by a means other than condemnation. Amends the law on eminent domain for gas storage to make it applicable to the pilot project operator's acquisitions by eminent domain. Provides that the state of Indiana, upon the recommendation of the director of the department of natural resources and review by the state budget committee, may obtain ownership of: (1) the carbon dioxide stored in the underground strata and formations; and (2) the underground strata and formations in which the carbon dioxide is stored; 12 years after pilot project underground injections begin or, if the underground injections cease in less than 12 years, after the underground injections cease. Urges the legislative council to assign to an appropriate interim study committee for the 2019 interim the task of studying the geologic storage of carbon dioxide.

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