Protect Louisiana Residents from Dangerous Carbon Capture and Storage Projects

What you need to know

This summer, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will make a decision on its proposal to grant the state of Louisiana special authority — called “primacy” — over the permitting process for industrial projects to capture and store carbon dioxide. Should the state be granted primacy, the state will have full authority over the siting and approval of new carbon capture and storage projects.

This is deeply concerning because heavy industry is looking to make Louisiana a national hub for carbon capture and storage, and the state has shown little regard for the very real concerns about the negative impacts on people and the environment of these massive industrial projects.

Just last month, Louisiana greenlit a dangerous plan to inject carbon dioxide under Lake Maurepas, with an additional 20 proposed carbon capture and storage projects currently moving toward getting approved.

The EPA has opened an official public comment period about this proposal, which will end on July 3, 2023. We must come together to tell the EPA that, because Louisiana has proven unable to adequately assess carbon capture and storage projects, it should not be given this special authority.

We ask that the EPA retains primacy over carbon capture and storage permitting until the state can demonstrate:

1. that it is capable of properly regulating carbon capture and storage projects in a transparent process with thorough public engagement, 

2. that it is able to provide the necessary resources to address potential disasters caused by carbon capture and storage infrastructure malfunction or failure, 

3. that vulnerable areas such as Lake Maurepas and its surrounding wetlands are protected from industrial development.

The Campaign: Explained

There are five keys reasons it is imperative that we take action on this campaign, as outlined by Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.

1. Carbon dioxide is hazardous

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and toxicant.

• Carbon dioxide displaces oxygen in the air we need to breathe. High concentrations of carbon dioxide can result in death.

• Within one minute of carbon dioxide poisoning, a person can pass out and suffer respiratory arrest. 

• On February 22, 2020 in Satartia, Mississippi, people were not able to escape a major carbon dioxide release from a pipeline rupture because their cars stalled out due to the clouds of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen.

2. Carbon waste injection increases risks

• Carbon dioxide corrosion can break down the metals in pipelines and containers and leak out with the potential for contaminating the environment, including waterways and groundwater sources for drinking water.

• Carbon dioxide can also break down rocks underground and, like an earthquake, cause things to shift above ground. Louisiana has numerous fault lines that increase the potential for earthquake incidents occurring from carbon waste injection. 

• Abandoned oil and gas wells can serve as straws for carbon dioxide to move upward to the atmosphere and increase climate risks, which defeats the entire purpose for carbon capture and storage or CCS.

3. Oil and gas companies lobbied to shift liability for the damages caused by carbon waste injection to the people of Louisiana.

• The damage that can be caused by a carbon waste injection well is clearly known to oil and gas companies.

• Their lobbyists pushed a bill through the state legislature that shifts liability to the people of Louisiana to pay for remedying this damage.

• This new law is in conflict with EPA's federal requirements.

4. The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has a record of failure.

• The Louisiana State Legislative Auditor has issued reports on DNR’s failure to regulate oil and gas wells.

• DNR’s failure to protect the Grand Bois community from oil waste led to severe health injuries suffered by children and adults.

• DNR’s failure to monitor and regulate resulted in the catastrophe of the ground giving way under the Bayou Corne community in 2012.

5. The DNR plans to give management of carbon waste injection wells to unnamed and unknown companies.

• In its application to the EPA, the DNR states that it will outsource the management of carbon injection wells to unnamed and unknown companies.

• Permanent underground storage of carbon dioxide in wells, which involves dangerous risks, has yet to be achieved.