The Storage of Carbon Dioxide (Amendment of the Energy Act 2008 etc.) Regulations 2011

Amendment of the Pipe-line Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2000

14.—(1) The Pipe-line Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2000(1) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 2, in the definition of “relevant pipe-line works”, after “any pipe-line which is intended to convey oil or gas”, insert—

“(aa) any pipe-line which is intended to convey carbon dioxide streams for the purposes of geological storage, including associated booster stations;”.

Review

15.—(1) Before the end of each review period, the Secretary of State must—

(a) carry out a review of regulations 2 to 14;

(b) set out the conclusions of the review in a report; and

(c) publish the report.

(2) In carrying out the review the Secretary of State must, so far as is reasonable, have regard to how Articles 2(1) and 6(1) of the Directive (which are implemented by means of regulations 2 to 13), and Article 31(1)(a) and (2)(b) of the Directive (which are implemented by means of regulation 14) are implemented in other member States.

(3) The report must in particular—

(a) set out the objectives intended to be achieved by—

(i) the extension of the prohibition on unlicensed activities established by regulations 2 to 13; and

(ii) the regulatory system for environmental impact assessment for certain pipelines established by regulation 14;

(b) assess the extent to which those objectives are achieved; and

(c) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate and, if so, the extent to which they could be achieved with a system that imposes less regulation.

(4) In this regulation—

(a) “review period” means—

(i) the period of five years beginning with the day on which these Regulations come into force; and

(ii) subject to paragraph (5), each successive period of five years; and

(b) “the Directive” means Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the geological storage of carbon dioxide and amending Council Directive 85/337/EEC, European Parliament and Council Directives 2000/60/EC, 2001/80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2006/12/EC, 2008/1/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006(2).

(5) If a report under this regulation is published before the last day of the review period to which it relates, the following review period is to begin with the day on which that report is published.

(1)

S.I. 2000/1928. The Regulations were amended by the Pipe-line Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/1992). Certain functions under this regulation are transferred, in so far as they are exercisable in or as regards Scotland, to the Scottish Ministers, by the Scotland Act 1998 (Transfer of Functions to the Scottish Ministers etc) (No 2) Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/3253). There are other amending instruments but none is relevant.

(2)

OJ No L 140, 5.6.2009, p.114.