About Us

Background

In 2003, Montana State University, under the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership, was awarded one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s seven Phase I regional carbon sequestration partnerships. The BSCSP region encompasses Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota and the eastern part of Washington and Oregon. Its membership includes universities, national laboratories, private companies, state agencies and Native American tribes.

The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership Vision

The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership’s vision is to prepare its member organizations for a possible carbon-constrained economy and enable the region to cleanly utilize its abundant fossil energy resources and sequestration sinks to support future energy demand and economic growth. The BSCSP will achieve this vision by demonstrating and validating the region’s most promising sequestration technologies and creating the supporting infrastructure required to deploy commercial scale carbon sequestration projects. This supporting infrastructure includes a geographic information system (GIS)-based economic and risk assessment tool to help determine optimal energy development strategies, regulatory and permitting approaches, and enhanced public understanding and acceptance. The infrastructure also includes a robust outreach program that trains scientists and engineers and communicates the contribution carbon sequestration technologies and the BSCSP can make to the region’s clean energy future.