The proposed activity would address activities in the field of carbon capture and storage (CCS), covering materials, equipment, environmental planning and management, risk management, quantification, and verification.
According to the proposal, industry and governments around the globe have named CCS a priority, calling for commercial projects to be initiated as soon as possible. However, the widespread commercial implementation of CCS has not occurred for several reasons, including cost, concerns about health and safety, lack of carbon pricing, and a dearth of clear regulations and standards.
As a cross-cutting issue, CCS touches on the fields of oil and gas, groundwater quality, GHG management, air quality, geology, electricity generation, and risk management. Because CCS is a relatively new technological field, the SCC proposal states, few countries have developed the necessary framework for CCS regulations and standards. International standardization in the CCS field would provide a necessary foundation that could be used to facilitate widespread implementation.
Standards for equipment and materials used in drilling, production, and transport by pipelines already covered by ISO Technical Committee (TC) 67, Materials, equipment and offshore structures for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries, would be excluded.
SCC has proposed that ANSI and the Standards Administration of China (SAC) co-sponsor the submittal of this proposal to ISO, with SCC holding the committee secretariat, ANSI holding the committee chair role, and SAC potentially holding either a co-chair or vice chair role.
All interested parties are invited to submit comments on the proposal, including whether ANSI should support and co-sponsor the new field of activity, to Steven Cornish, ANSI senior director for international policy (isot@ansi.org) by close of business on Friday, March 25, 2011. All input received will be compiled and considered in the development of a recommended ANSI position, which will then be presented to the ANSI ISO Council (AIC) for formal review.
Click here to read the SCC proposal.