A task force of state, University of Wyoming and industry officials is helping lawmakers craft a legal and regulatory framework for commercial-scale carbon sequestration.

State officials are eager to promote the geologic storage of CO2 as one way to protect jobs and revenue from Wyoming's coal industry.

CO2 is the main greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, according to the world's top scientists. The combustion of coal is a major source of man-caused CO2 emissions.

Last year, state legislators passed a package of laws outlining aspects such as underground pore space ownership and first-in-right mineral priority. Last week a task force outlined several more recommendations such as detailed bonding requirements, three new technical positions at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and a trust fund for unforeseen events.

"The financial community is wanting the long-term liability addressed," said DEQ Administrator John Corra.

Corra and several other members of the carbon sequestration task force presented a report to the Legislature's Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee last week. The task force will also report to the Joint Judiciary Committee, which will take the lead in crafting legislation on the recommendations.

Corra said a few modifications can be made to DEQ's existing monitoring and bonding programs to accommodate carbon sequestration. DEQ would likely need three new specialists: two engineers with expertise in underground hydrology and fluid movement, and a financial analyst.

In order to inject CO2 underground, the operator would have to assume liability and post a bond with the state large enough to cover well-plugging and risks associated with the activity. The task force recommended that after injections are complete, the operator must monitor the CO2 plume to ensure stabilization for a period of at least 10 years in order for the state to release the bond.

"Regardless, the plume has to be stable before their duties are complete," Corra said.

Then the state would begin a long-term monitoring program. But unlike Texas and other states, Wyoming does not want to assume human health and environmental liability in perpetuity in the event of CO2 leaks or something more catastrophic like an earthquake.

Officials agreed the state should claim sovereign immunity from such liability and possibly seek some sort of insurance. Consensus among Wyoming officials seems to be that the federal government ought to assume liability for the long term.

"There's a total lack of any kind of integrated plan among all the states in the West" on the long-term liability question, said Joint Minerals Committee Co-Chairman Sen. Grant Larson, R-Jackson.

Larson said some states want to assume all liability forever, while other states are crafting different strategies.

"I feel like Wyoming is taking the right approach. But this whole idea is fragmented in the West," Larson said.

One energy bill before Congress would have the federal government assume long-term carbon sequestration liability for the first 10 commercial projects.

A key component of the task force's recommendations is for the state to charge a per-ton fee on CO2 injections to create a special revenue account to potentially cover those unforeseen risks over the long term.

"Nobody knows how long this will be," Corra said.

Laura Ladd, energy economics adviser to Gov. Dave Freudenthal, said even a modest tipping fee should generation a significant fund.

"A $1 per ton (fee) creates a very, very large trust fund on a short order," Ladd said.

State Geologist Ron Surdam said the state has already identified two prime geologic structures for carbon sequestration in Wyoming: the Moxa Arch in the southwest corner of the state, and the Rock Springs Uplift in Sweetwater County.

Surdam said the Los Alamos National Laboratory used its modeling software to determine whether the deep saline formation could take 15 million metric tons of CO2 per year for 50 years.

"So at the end of 50 years we have put 750 million tons in the formation. In fact, that CO2 would be confined. It can be done," Surdam said.

But, in order to avoid pressurizing the formation and fracturing the cap rock, briny water would have to be pumped out of the formation at a one-to-one ratio.

Surdam said one simulation suggested that CO2 injections over a 75-year period would require pumping 1 cubic kilometer of fluid to the surface -- about the volume of Boysen Reservoir.

"That's a lot of fluid, and that's a problem," Surdam said.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com. Check out Dustin's blog at tribtown.trib.com/DustinBleizeffer/blog.