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The effort to make Louisiana the keeper of carbon [1]

['More Desmog', 'Desmog']

Date: 2023-06-23

By Sara Sneath, DeSmog

The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a three-day listening session this week in Louisiana’s capital city to hear the public’s opinions on the state’s bid to take over permitting authority of carbon capture and sequestration, the fossil fuel industry’s preferred response to climate change.

While the EPA has already expressed its intent to give permitting authority to the state, those who testified on the first day of the three-day public hearing spoke to a deeper matter: Whether the state of Louisiana should continue to tie itself to fossil fuels.

“I support the oil and gas industry because it’s the basic root of Louisiana’s economy and for the industry of all America,” testified Danny Wallace, of Winnsboro, Louisiana. “If the oil and gas industry were to leave this state it would be devastating not only to this state, but all of America. Jobs and careers would be gone.”

Sitting in the front row were speakers in support of EPA granting CCS permitting authority to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Credit: Julie Dermansky

“A prior speaker said he worried about his friends who were leaving Louisiana because there were no jobs available. I am concerned about the cacophony, the litany, the long list of friends who have left the state of Louisiana because there is no future here,” testified Jane Patton, who works for the Center for International Environmental Law and lives in New Orleans. “And injecting the oil and gas industry’s waste product under the ground in experimental, proven-to-be-ineffective carbon injection wells is not the climate solution that the people of Louisiana are demanding.”

Representatives from the EPA moderated the hearing in the LaSalle Building in Baton Rouge on June 21, 2023. Credit: Julie Dermansky

Starting June 21, 2023, the EPA is holding three days of public hearings on carbon capture and storage in the LaSalle Building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Credit: Julie Dermansky

Federal regulators have not approved any carbon capture and sequestration projects in Louisiana yet. But oil and gas companies are eager to add the technology to their plans to expand in the state as well as retrofit existing facilities with the technology, which would allow the firms to continue burning fossil fuels. Carbon capture and sequestration involves chemically stripping carbon from the exhaust of power plants, fertilizer manufacturing facilities, and other industrial emitters and transporting the gas through pipelines to underground caverns for storage.

Plans for at least 20 carbon capture and sequestration projects in the state have been announced, according to a report commissioned by the 2030 Fund. Half have applied for federal permits.

Recently passed federal subsidies and, potentially, a quicker permitting process are driving fossil fuel firms to develop these plans. Companies successfully pushed for increased subsidies for CCS to be written into the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that they’re now eager to capitalize on. The industry wants Louisiana to take over permitting of the projects under the assumption that the state would permit projects much faster than the federal government has.

The EPA granted North Dakota permitting authority for carbon capture projects in the state in 2018. Since then, North Dakota has approved a project within eight months, said Marc Ehrhardt, with Grow Louisiana Coalition, an oil and gas industry advocacy group. In comparison, federal permitting takes three to six years, he said. “Louisiana’s energy industry has been the backbone of our state’s economy for a century and has been an essential resource for America’s and the world’s energy supply,” Ehrhardt said. “It’s critical for Louisiana to maintain our place as an energy innovator.”

Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, prepares to testify at the EPA hearing on June 21, 2023. Credit: Julie Dermansky

But other speakers noted that the industry’s success in the state has come at the expense of polluted air for some Louisiana residents. For more than 30 years, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice has helped Louisiana communities push back against industrial polluters that put their health at risk, said Dr. Beverly Wright, the Center’s Executive Director. “After these steps forward, we are now confronted with the possibility of a major setback,” she said. “Oil and gas companies are now attempting to push us back and lock us into the continued burning of dirty energy dressed up with carbon capture and storage.”

A 2019 Stanford University analysis found that carbon capture technology reduced the climate-warming emissions of a coal-burning power plant by a mere 10% while increasing overall air pollution.

The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August 2022, with provisions requested by fossil fuel firms aimed at making the technology economically viable. Carbon capture and sequestration is a costly endeavor in part because of the amount of energy required to run the equipment, which is often fed by burning more fossil fuels. Denbury Inc, Air Products, CF Industries, and Shell — all of which have planned projects in Louisiana — were among the 170 signatories on an August 2021 letter to Congress demanding more subsidies for carbon capture projects be included in what would become the Inflation Reduction Act.

Their requests, most of which made it into the IRA, include increasing the 45Q tax credit values for carbon capture and storage and enhanced oil recovery, extending the timeframe for projects to build, and lowering the amount of carbon that projects need to store to qualify for the tax credits. The IRA subsidies add to those created under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included $2.5 billion for CCS demonstration projects, $1 billion for large-scale pilot projects, and nearly $5 billion for CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, according to the Global CCS Institute, which called the law “the single largest CCS infrastructure investment ever.”

Members of the public waiting for their chance to testify on June 21, 2023 at the EPA hearing held in the LaSalle Building in Baton Rouge. Credit: Julie Dermansky

The increased subsidies have made carbon capture economically viable for a wider range of polluting facilities including oil refineries and chemical manufacturers, according to the Clean Air Task Force, an environmental lobbying group that has embraced carbon capture technology. But the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that carbon capture technology alone is not enough to reach climate goals in lieu of reductions in fossil fuel dependence. With so much money at stake, industry players and their proponents made up about half of the testimony on Wednesday in Baton Rouge.

ExxonMobil, which has announced plans to build a carbon storage project in Vermilion Parish in south Louisiana, ran advertisements on Facebook ahead of this week’s hearings. “Tell the EPA to help create new jobs and economic investment with CCS,” one ad reads. Another features a quote from Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, in support of carbon capture and sequestration.

This article first appeared on DeSmog. Images cannot be republished without permission.

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If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola on Facebook @VeriteNewsNola on Twitter. If you have any other questions, contact managing editor Tim Morris. The effort to make Louisiana the keeper of carbon <h1>The effort to make Louisiana the keeper of carbon</h1> by DeSmog, Verite June 23, 2023 By <a href="https://www.desmog.com/user/sara-sneath/">Sara Sneath</a>, <a href="https://www.desmog.com/">DeSmog</a> The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a three-day listening session this week in Louisiana’s capital city to hear the public’s opinions on the state’s bid to take over permitting authority of carbon capture and sequestration, the <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2023/02/13/exxon-shell-bp-api-concerns-carbon-capture/">fossil fuel industry’s preferred response</a> to climate change. While the EPA has already <a href="https://www.epa.gov/uic/underground-injection-control-epa-region-6-ar-la-nm-ok-and-tx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expressed its intent</a> to give permitting authority to the state, those who testified on the first day of the three-day public hearing spoke to a deeper matter: Whether the state of Louisiana should continue to tie itself to fossil fuels. “I support the oil and gas industry because it’s the basic root of Louisiana’s economy and for the industry of all America,” testified Danny Wallace, of Winnsboro, Louisiana. “If the oil and gas industry were to leave this state it would be devastating not only to this state, but all of America. Jobs and careers would be gone.” <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2B2A9419-1024x675.jpeg" alt="Five men sit in a row of chairs marked 'reserved'" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sitting in the front row were speakers in support of EPA granting CCS permitting authority to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Credit: Julie Dermansky</figcaption></figure> “A prior speaker said he worried about his friends who were leaving Louisiana because there were no jobs available. I am concerned about the cacophony, the litany, the long list of friends who have left the state of Louisiana because there is no future here,” testified Jane Patton, who works for the Center for International Environmental Law and lives in New Orleans. “And injecting the oil and gas industry’s waste product under the ground in experimental, proven-to-be-ineffective carbon injection wells is not the climate solution that the people of Louisiana are demanding.” <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-verite wp-block-embed-verite"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://veritenews.org/our-commitment-to-listening/ </div> </figure> <figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/6V5A9995-1024x654.jpeg" alt="Three men in suits sit behind microphones at a wood-paneled dais." width="810" height="517" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Representatives from the EPA moderated the hearing in the LaSalle Building in Baton Rouge on June 21, 2023. Credit: Julie Dermansky</figcaption></figure> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/6V5A9904-1024x568.jpeg" alt="Two rows of seated people stare ahead at a panel of officials in a high-ceilinged white room with wood panels." /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Starting June 21, 2023, the EPA is holding three days of public hearings on carbon capture and storage in the LaSalle Building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Credit: Julie Dermansky</figcaption></figure> Federal regulators have not approved any carbon capture and sequestration projects in Louisiana yet. But oil and gas companies are eager to add the technology to their plans to expand in the state as well as retrofit existing facilities with the technology, which would allow the firms to continue burning fossil fuels. Carbon capture and sequestration involves chemically stripping carbon from the exhaust of <a href="https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-announces-two-louisiana-carbon-capture-demonstrations-projects-selected-from-his-infrastructure-law" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">power plants</a>, <a href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/news/news-releases/2022/1012_landmark-emissions-reduction-project-in-louisiana-announced" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fertilizer manufacturing facilities</a>, and other <a href="https://www.oxy.com/news/news-releases/oxy-low-carbon-ventures-and-weyerhaeuser-reach-lease-agreement-for-a-carbon-capture-and-sequestration-project-in-louisiana/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">industrial emitters</a> and transporting the gas through pipelines to underground caverns for storage. Plans for at least 20 carbon capture and sequestration projects in the state have been announced, according to <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6422298c9536175973c5173c/t/647fba41fdb96c18bd68e27a/1686092354913/CCS+in+Louisiana_Part+1_7JUN2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a report</a> commissioned by the 2030 Fund. Half have applied for federal permits. Recently passed federal subsidies and, potentially, a quicker permitting process are driving fossil fuel firms to develop these plans. Companies successfully pushed for increased subsidies for CCS to be written into the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Inflation-Reduction-Act-Guidebook.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Inflation Reduction Act</a> (IRA) and <a href="https://www.energy.gov/fecm/funding-notice-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-carbon-capture-technology-program-front-end" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bipartisan Infrastructure Law</a> that they’re now eager to capitalize on. The industry wants Louisiana to take over permitting of the projects under the assumption that the state would permit projects much faster than the federal government has. The EPA granted North Dakota permitting authority for carbon capture projects in the state in <a href="https://www.dmr.nd.gov/dmr/oilgas/ClassVI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2018</a>. Since then, North Dakota has approved a project within eight months, said Marc Ehrhardt, with Grow Louisiana Coalition, an oil and gas industry <a href="https://business.sttammanychamber.org/list/member/grow-louisiana-coalition-29076" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">advocacy group</a>. In comparison, federal permitting takes three to six years, he said. “Louisiana’s energy industry has been the backbone of our state’s economy for a century and has been an essential resource for America’s and the world’s energy supply,” Ehrhardt said. “It’s critical for Louisiana to maintain our place as an energy innovator.” <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/6V5A9773-Edit-1024x682.jpeg" alt="A woman in yellow paisley dress sits in the front row of cushioned wood chairs in the audience of a wood-paneled hearing room." /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, prepares to testify at the EPA hearing on June 21, 2023. Credit: Julie Dermansky</figcaption></figure> But other speakers noted that the industry’s success in the state has come at the expense of polluted air for some Louisiana residents. For more than 30 years, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice has helped Louisiana communities push back against industrial polluters that put their health at risk, said Dr. Beverly Wright, the Center’s Executive Director. “After these steps forward, we are now confronted with the possibility of a major setback,” she said. “Oil and gas companies are now attempting to push us back and lock us into the continued burning of dirty energy dressed up with carbon capture and storage.” A <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2019/10/25/study-casts-doubt-carbon-capture/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2019 Stanford University analysis</a> found that carbon capture technology reduced the climate-warming emissions of a coal-burning power plant by a mere 10% while increasing overall air pollution. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August 2022, with provisions requested by fossil fuel firms aimed at making the technology economically viable. Carbon capture and sequestration is a costly endeavor in part because of the amount of energy required to run the equipment, which is often fed by burning more fossil fuels. Denbury Inc, Air Products, CF Industries, and Shell — all of which have planned projects in Louisiana — were among the 170 signatories on <a href="https://www.scalingcarbonmanagement.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an August 2021 letter to Congress</a> demanding more subsidies for carbon capture projects be included in what would become the Inflation Reduction Act. Their requests, most of which made it into the IRA, include increasing the 45Q tax credit values for carbon capture and storage and enhanced oil recovery, extending the timeframe for projects to build, and lowering the amount of carbon that projects need to store to qualify for the tax credits. The IRA subsidies add to those created under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included $2.5 billion for CCS demonstration projects, $1 billion for large-scale pilot projects, and nearly $5 billion for CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, according to the Global CCS Institute, which called the law “<a href="https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/news-media/latest-news/us-congress-passes-bill-with-the-single-largest-ccs-infrastructure-investment-ever/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the single largest CCS infrastructure investment ever</a>.” <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2B2A9951-Edit-1024x686.jpeg" alt="Members of the public seated in a wood-paneled room, waiting for their chance to testify at a hearing." /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Members of the public waiting for their chance to testify on June 21, 2023 at the EPA hearing held in the LaSalle Building in Baton Rouge. Credit: Julie Dermansky</figcaption></figure> The increased subsidies have made carbon capture economically viable for a wider range of polluting facilities including oil refineries and chemical manufacturers, according to the <a href="https://www.catf.us/2022/08/the-inflation-reduction-act-creates-a-whole-new-market-for-carbon-capture/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Clean Air Task Force</a>, an environmental <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2023&id=D000049290" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lobbying</a> group that has embraced carbon capture technology. But the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/06/carbon-capture-and-storage-is-no-free-lunch-warns-climate-chief-hoesung-lee" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warned</a> that carbon capture technology alone is not enough to reach climate goals in lieu of reductions in fossil fuel dependence. With so much money at stake, industry players and their proponents made up about half of the testimony on Wednesday in Baton Rouge. ExxonMobil, which has announced plans to build a carbon storage project in Vermilion Parish in south Louisiana, ran advertisements on Facebook ahead of this week’s hearings. “Tell the EPA to help create new jobs and economic investment with CCS,” one ad reads. Another features a quote from Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, in support of carbon capture and sequestration. This <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2023/06/22/epa-louisiana-carbon-capture-storage-ccs-primacy-hearing/">article</a> first appeared on <a href="https://www.desmog.com/">DeSmog</a>. Images cannot be republished without permission. This <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org/2023/06/23/keeper-of-carbon/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org">Verite</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/veritenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cropped-Verite-icon.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://veritenews.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=7248&ga3=319934958" style="width:1px;height:1px;"> Copy to Clipboard

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