PRESS RELEASE: Hoosiers Warn StateOfficials Unprepared, Understaffed to Take Over Permitting & Oversight of Underground Carbon Injection Wells from U.S. EPA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 3, 2026
Hoosiers Warn State Officials Unprepared, Understaffed to Take Over Permitting & Oversight of Underground Carbon Injection Wells from U.S. EPA
Indianapolis – Hoosiers opposed to risky “carbon capture, utilization & storage” (CCUS) boondoggle projects expressed dismay after the Legislature passed House Bill 1368, which clears a path for Indiana to apply for “primacy” enforcement authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and have the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) instead manage permitting and oversight of dangerous underground carbon dioxide (CO2) wells.
During hearings and in public comments, members of Bold’s Indiana Action Team, a grassroots organization established for the benefit of landowners and community members affected by Wabash Valley Resources’ plan to create an underground toxic CO2 waste dump in Indiana, testified that they do not believe the Indiana DNR is prepared to take on this critical responsibility, to ensure that the CO2 injected deep underground never escapes, forever posing risks to local communities from deadly asphyxiation and groundwater contamination.
There are currently nine applications for CO2 underground injection well sites in Indiana before the U.S. EPA.
The Indiana Action Team plans to oppose the state’s forthcoming “primacy” application before the U.S. EPA, which by statute will include a process with a public hearing and comment period.
“It is clear that the legislators are well aware that Hoosiers do not want carbon sequestration in our State, which is why they continuously bend the rules to get this type of legislation through. The continued push to fast-track carbon sequestration simply proves that they are working for industry, not the Hoosiers who put them in office. It is clear that money buys bad policy in Indiana, and Hoosiers end up paying the price,” said Susan Strole-Kos, of Concerned Citizens Against Wabash Valley Resources.
“It is apparent that Indiana legislators do not even understand what carbon sequestration is, especially when they can be misled by statements from people like bill author Ed Soliday, who told the assembly that the bill was “NOT about sequestration.” If our state does not understand that a Class VI injection is for carbon sequestration, it certainly has no business permitting or overseeing these types of injection projects,” said Whitney Boyce, of Concerned Citizens Against Wabash Valley Resources.
“The passage of this legislation just furthers what we already knew – Indiana’s elected officials have been buffaloed by industry interests. We should not be sending out a welcoming committee to turn the state into a massive landfill for toxic carbon waste,” said Emma Schmit, Bold Alliance's Pipeline Fighters Director.
About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementLLC.org) The Indiana Action Team is a grassroots organization established for the benefit of landowners and community members affected by Wabash Valley Resources’ plan to create an underground toxic CO2 waste dump in Indiana. (https://indianaactionteam.org)
About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)
About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop carbon pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. We believe that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is unproven and overly expensive and wastefully incentivized approach to climate change, and that the carbon pipelines needed for CCS are poorly planned, under-regulated, and risky infrastructure. These huge and complex projects should not move forward until counties, states and the federal government prove first that they are a better climate solution than renewable energy, and second that safety, planning, and routing standards are in place to avoid inefficient chaotic development driven by wasteful federal spending. (https://boldalliance.org)