California SB 905: Carbon Capture Storage, Permits, and Pipelines

California’s SB 905, signed in 2022, created the state’s first comprehensive regulatory program for carbon capture, utilization, and storage and for carbon dioxide removal technologies, including direct air capture. The California carbon capture law directs the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to evaluate whether these technologies are safe and viable, build a unified permitting framework, set rules for storing CO2 underground, and impose long-term monitoring and financial responsibility on operators. Most of the implementing regulations are still not final heading into 2026, so the law’s practical effect on projects is still catching up to what’s on the page.

What the Program Covers

SB 905 established the Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program inside CARB. The program’s charge is to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and viability of carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal technologies, then build the regulatory infrastructure that lets approved projects operate.¹ The scope is wider than traditional smokestack capture. It reaches direct air capture, where machines pull CO2 straight out of the atmosphere.²

The law fits inside California’s larger commitment, codified by AB 1279, to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and net-negative emissions after that.³ SB 905 is meant to plug a new category of climate technology into that target.⁴ The law also requires CARB to prioritize workforce development and employment in communities that host these projects.⁵

The Unified Permit Application

One of SB 905’s practical centerpieces is a unified permit application. Instead of filing separately with every state and local agency involved in a carbon capture or sequestration project, an operator can submit one application that routes the information to all of them.⁵

The limits are important. Using the unified application is optional. It does not reduce the authority of individual permitting agencies, and each agency still issues its own permit. It does not change any requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), so environmental review is unchanged. Before CARB finalizes the application, it must hold at least three public workshops with remote participation by internet or phone. CARB must also build a centralized public database tracking where these technologies are deployed and how projects are progressing.⁵

The Pipeline Moratorium

SB 905 takes a cautious line on CO2 pipelines. The law prohibits transporting carbon dioxide by pipeline to or from a capture or sequestration project until two things happen: the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) completes its rulemaking on minimum safety standards for CO2 pipelines, and the operator demonstrates that its pipeline meets those standards.⁵ As of early 2026, PHMSA has not completed that rulemaking, so the moratorium remains in effect.

There is a narrow exception. Pipelines that carry CO2 within the same facility or property where the CO2 was captured are not subject to the moratorium.⁵

Who Owns the Underground Storage Space

Storing CO2 underground raises a question most property owners never think about: who owns the empty space deep below the surface? SB 905 answers it. Title to a geologic storage reservoir belongs to the owner of the overlying surface estate, unless that ownership has already been separately transferred. A sale of the surface property automatically includes the storage reservoir below it unless the reservoir rights were previously separated or explicitly excluded from the sale.⁶

Selling mineral rights does not transfer storage reservoir rights. An agreement conveying minerals or other subsurface interests only includes the geologic storage reservoir if the agreement explicitly says so. When storage rights are transferred, the instrument must describe the scope of any surface-use rights granted, provide a general description of the reservoir’s potential location, and allocate legal liability between the surface owner and the reservoir owner.⁶

Project operators must notify adjacent surface, subsurface, and storage reservoir owners at least 60 days before beginning development. Once a property has been used for carbon sequestration, the operator must record that fact on the deed so future buyers know CO2 has been stored there and how much.⁶

Community and Environmental Justice Requirements

SB 905 gets specific about impacts on people living near project sites. Every project must include strategies that minimize copollutant emissions to the greatest extent technologically feasible, with explicit emphasis on protecting low-income and disadvantaged communities from adverse air quality and public health impacts.⁵

Projects must also minimize water pollution and air pollution from construction and transportation in adjacent communities. Each operator must create an air monitoring and mitigation plan to track potential toxic air contaminants and criteria pollutants from the site. Projects cannot cause a significant net increase in air, water, or soil pollution for communities already bearing a high cumulative exposure burden. Where avoiding increased on-site air pollution isn’t feasible, the operator must invest in mitigation in the affected community. Projects must meet best available control technology requirements as determined by the local air district. Beyond air quality, CARB must prioritize minimizing land use impacts, noise, water quality effects, traffic, and seismic risks in all communities where the technology is deployed.⁵

Seismic Monitoring and the 100-Year Floor

Injecting CO2 underground at scale carries seismic risks. SB 905 requires monitoring of seismic activity related to geologic sequestration long enough to demonstrate that CO2 leakage poses no material threat to public health, safety, or the environment. That monitoring period cannot end any earlier than 100 years after the last date of injection.⁵

The California Geological Survey plays a central role. SB 905 established a Geologic Carbon Sequestration Group inside the Survey to provide independent expertise and regulatory guidance to CARB. The group identifies suitable storage locations and flags hazards that may require suspending injections. The law defines “high quality, suitable locations” as reservoirs modeled to maintain structural integrity for at least 1,000 years. If monitoring detects increased seismicity or CO2 leakage outside a reservoir, the State Geologist reports the activity to CARB, which can require operational changes, including a mandatory pause.⁵

Financial Responsibility for Operators

SB 905 offers no grants or subsidies. What it does require is proof that operators can pay if something goes wrong. Each operator must submit a financial responsibility plan to CARB covering short-term and long-term costs tied to seismic liability, loss of CO2 containment from the storage reservoir, and protection of drinking water quality and public health. Acceptable instruments may include bonds, though CARB has discretion over the specific forms of financial assurance required.⁵

With a 100-year monitoring floor, financial responsibility isn’t a formality. Operators need to show they can fund decades of post-injection monitoring and respond to containment failures long after a project stops generating revenue. CARB is still developing the specific regulations that govern these requirements.⁷

Where Implementation Stands

SB 905 set a January 1, 2025 deadline for CARB to adopt regulations for the unified permit application, financial responsibility requirements, and the public tracking database.⁸ CARB missed it. As of early 2026, the agency’s tentative schedule calls for releasing a regulatory framework in the first quarter of 2026, with a formal rulemaking package available for public comment in the second quarter.⁹

The delay matters. No CCUS or CDR project in California can operate under the SB 905 framework until these regulations are final. Combined with the pipeline moratorium, which depends on federal PHMSA action that also remains incomplete, the regulatory machinery SB 905 envisioned is still being built. California has written one of the most detailed state-level frameworks for carbon capture anywhere in the country. The gap between the statute and operating projects on the ground remains wide going into 2026.

1
California Air Resources Board. Public Meetings to Provide an Overview of SB 905 Carbon Capture Utilization and Sequestration Requirements
2
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 39741
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California Legislative Information. AB 1279 California Climate Crisis Act
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Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. Carbon Neutrality by 2045
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California Legislative Information. SB 905 Carbon Sequestration – Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program
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California Legislative Information. SB 905 Compare Versions – Carbon Sequestration
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California Air Resources Board. Senate Bill 905 Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization and Storage Report to Legislature
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California Department of Finance. Budget Change Proposal – Expanded Resources for Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization and Storage Program (SB 905)
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California Air Resources Board. Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage