America's Talking - Louisiana Lawmakers Reject Several Carbon Capture Bills

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

(The Center Square) — Legislators rejected seven bills on Tuesday that would have greatly hindered the development of carbon capture and sequestration, a major blow to Louisiana constituents concerned about eminent domain and CO2 leaks. Only one bill moved through the House Natural Resources Committee. Senate Bill 73, from Sen. Mike Reese, R-Beauregard, passed without objection. The bill requires the commissioner of conservation to give significant weight to local government input when making decisions on carbon dioxide sequestration projects that involve public comments or hearings. Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/louisiana/article_79dd7e46-6b50-44d8-9bff-aee00cdf8232.htmlhttps://www.thecentersquare.com/louisiana/article_ae0d1f09-9b47-440c-8557-91b681b0471c.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Emily Kalametti, and recently Louisiana lawmakers rejected several carbon capture bills. And joining to tell us more is Nolan McKendry, Louisiana reporter for the Center Square. Hi, Nolan. Hamley, thanks for having me. Of course. So we're just going to start out by, could you explain what carbon capture and sequestration is and why it became such a hot button issue in Louisiana? Sure. carbon capturing sequestration or CCS is a technology that does what it sounds like.

It traps carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources like refineries or chemical plants and injects them underground for long-term storage. And by long-term, I mean like thousands of years. So to visualize, you know, just imagine a smokestack or chimney, like you see it, a lot of oil refineries, for instance, And instead of letting that smoke go into the air, you would capture it and then transport it and then store it. Supporters of CCS say that it's key to keeping Louisiana competitive in global energy markets. But especially in rural areas of Louisiana, it's becoming quite controversial. People are very worried about safety, land rights, and whether local voices are being ignored in favor of these.

titans of industry. And would you say that a few of the things you just listed are some of the biggest concerns that you're hearing from those rural communities? Yes, certainly. Almost exclusively they've been about whether these companies are going to be able to take their land or there's also a lot of public safety concerns. And how has the industry, especially major players such as ExxonMobil, people like that, responded to this opposition?

Exxon and others have defended CCS as safe, as proven and economically beneficial, especially. They point to decades of successful storage and site federal and regulations, state regulations as safeguards.

The thing about CCS is that it's nothing new, really, it's been happening for decades. but if you were surprised to hear that, you know, large energy companies would be interested in controlling their greenhouse gas emissions, they're not necessarily doing so for the sake of climate change or out of an environmentalist sentiment, at least that's, at least for the most part. One person I talked to, for instance, who is certainly an authority on this topic called CCS a, quote, business opportunity, that these companies want to be able to market their products as low carbon. to international markets. They compared it to, you know, people wanting to buy organic fruit from the supermarket, for instance, which I suppose does suggest some environmentally conscious motivation. And on the economic side, the economic benefits, they talk about the job creation and, you know, the investment in because of CCS. Currently, something like, I think 4,000 jobs are tied to the development of CCS in Louisiana.

and I think billions of dollars of investment. And so, you know, whenever I introduced you, I mentioned, you know, obviously several carbon capture bills. And recent legislature has debated over 20 bills on carbon capture. What were some of the key bills in that? And how did they fare? Most of the bills that would have greatly restricted the development of CCS were killed in committee. But on Wednesday, opponents to CCS did secure a couple of wins. One bill passed

that bars eminent domain to be used for the sake of CCS. Another would more equally compensate landowners for their land. One of the bills that failed flat out criminalized carbon capture and sequestration. And another bill that passed, for instance, detailed a lot of the safety requirements and emergency response plans for these carbon capture companies. But they, you know, the proponents of CCS said that, you know, basically these are, this is unnecessary. We've already got these sort of checks and balances on how to respond in such an emergency. Now, these bills have only passed committee, the ones that did pass, have only passed

committee. So they've still got to be debated and voted on in the House and the Senate. And so this fight is not over yet. And when thinking of instances or incidents within things like this, could you tell us more, if anything, the significance of the Satarsha pipeline and how that has influenced debate within carbon capture? That incident was often the first thing. One of the very first things opponents bring up. I mean, it goes right to the heart of many of the concerns here. a CO2 pipeline, you know, functioning for carbon capture and sequestration ruptured in Satarsha,

Mississippi, which created a dense cloud of CO2 that displaced oxygen. So, you know, if there's no oxygen, people can't breathe. Accordingly, people collapsed. They had seizures. Dozens were hospitalized. I think even one died. Now, even though that's... in Mississippi. It's obviously become a cautionary tale, not just in Louisiana, but everywhere.

It shows what can go wrong if the infrastructure fails, and it's fueling, no pun intended, it's feeling calls for stronger oversight and community control. It's important no, however, and the oil and gas industry, for instance, would note this that the pipeline didn't rupture out of poor maintenance or a lack of oversight. It rupture because of a lack of a lack of a landslide. Now, that still shouldn't take away the potential danger of a CO2 leak. I mean, landslides happen all the time in essence. And with incidents happening like this, you know, I'm not sure if this is frequent or not, but do you think that there's a path forward when it comes to compromise between industry

and local governments, or is this fight kind of just beginning? It's definitely just beginning. I mean, I think there's, the legislature showed that there's some acolyte for middle ground. for instance, one of the bills that the past committee required local government to consider local voices. Like when the permitting process is happening, it required public comments to be given a greater emphasis in the decision to approve or not approve the permit. But the deeper issues, you know, trust, public safety, land rights, those are still very hard to address. and resolve. So if industry wants to buy in, they're going to need to build relationships and not just pipelines. And if rural parishes keep organizing like they have been, we're likely to see

some more pushback, not less. I think one of the most interesting things about having covered this topic is the various groups that have joined hands in this fight. For instance, you would assume that the climate change and environmentalism lobby would, but it'll be all over these CCS projects, right? Like, oh, you're going to stop carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere? That sounds great, but that's not what we're seeing. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The climate change lobby vehemently opposes CCS

because they see it as a way for oil and gas companies to make a quick buck while saying they are a part of a solution. When I covered one of the recent hearings to environmentalists, I spoke with, you know, they went on. and on about CCS and how it's unproven and wasteful and how much money these energy conglomerates will stand to make. On top of that, you have you have these very conservative rural landowners teaming up with organizations that, at least in terms of climate policy, are very left, very much to the left of the political spectrum. When I interviewed one of the rural Louisianaans, for instance, they said that they were very much in favor of the oil and gas industry.

They're worried about their land rights and not being compensated fairly. But the organizations that are joining them in support, for instance, are doing so on a very different light, right? One of the people I spoke with works for an organization called Healthy Gulf. And on their website, it writes that CCS has, quote, CCS, quote, only serves to extend the era of fossil fuels. I mean, that tells you everything you need to know about the political slant of that organization. which is joining hands with people from country counties that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, 80% in Allen County, 85% in Beauregard County, 83% in Vernon County.

It definitely sounds like you've spoken with a lot of people and you've heard both sides when it comes to these debates and incidents that are going on. What are you watching next in this kind of area? We'll be watching to see how the opposition grows, you know, whether more parishes join in on the opposition and whether legal challenges emerge. It's also, I think, an important, it's important to keep an eye on non-rural Louisianaans. Do Louisianaans more generally come out in support or against a carbon capture and sequestration? I'm also keeping an eye on what the state does with permitting. Will local voices actually be factored in or will they just be given the polite nod?

And obviously we're watching for the industry's next move. They've got a lot of momentum now, but like I've said, the fight is far from settled. And where do you think it goes from here, depending on either of those outcomes? Well, I don't think these parishes will necessarily just roll over. I think as these permits are considered, I think you'll have these parishes continuing to voice their support. or I'm sorry, their opposition, no doubt. For instance, Alan Parrish, which is where one of the, one of Exxon's proposed pipelines,

they're in the process of getting their permit right now. They just, Alan Parrish just passed a bunch of regulations on ExxonMobil's pipeline, I think. And so now, you know, Exxon could very well challenge that legally. And so, yeah, this fight is not over yet. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Nolan. I really appreciate it. And you can follow this story and more at thecentersquare.com.