Carbon capture portrayed as a linchpin to Louisiana’s success, failure
A carbon capture facility. (Canva)
By Terry L. Jones for Floodlight and the Louisiana Illuminator Allowing the state of Louisiana to regulate the injection of carbon dioxide underground would continue a pattern of systemic harm to residents already burdened by pollution. Not allowing the state to regulate those wells could decimate the state’s economy and cause it to lose its primary economic engine. Those were the fundamental existential arguments offered by the more than 100 people who testified this week in Baton Rouge on whether the state should have the responsibility for those wells.
The Concerns: Environmental advocates say historically, Louisiana hasn’t adequately regulated the oil and gas industry, which is dominating carbon capture and sequestration projects.
The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) “is the same agency that has struggled for years to maintain records, enforce rules, and manage responsibilities they already have for five other classes of wells” the department already regulates, says Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy. Some of those deficiencies were highlighted in audits by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office in 2004 and in 2020.