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Parish-by-Parish CCS Regulations Rejected in House Natural Resources
Over the course of nearly five hours Tuesday, LABI and industry partners helped beat back 11 proposals aimed at injecting uncertainty and ambiguity into Louisiana’s respected and internationally recognized carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) structure. The House Natural Resources Committee heard numerous local option bills that would have replaced a consistent statewide framework with inconsistent CCS policies across parishes, weakening the stable regulatory environment investors rely on.
After receiving testimony from all sides on the list of bills, the Committee moved to a series of votes in an orderly manner. Leading that list was HB 5 by Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Johnson (R-Pineville). The legislation would have shifted authority from the state to parishes (via governing authority or local voters) to block carbon capture projects, with decisions binding for five years. LABI opposed the bill as a move that would create regulatory uncertainty, discourage investment and weaken Louisiana’s ability to compete for emerging energy opportunities.
Patrick Robinson, LABI’s Vice President of Government Relations, testified in opposition to HB 5, warning that investors are making project decisions right now and that adding new hurdles would push them to look outside Louisiana.
“There’s a reason that the federal government grants primacy to states and not to parishes and counties,” Robinson said. “The Department of Conservation and Energy has the resources and the expertise that parishes do not. They have a predictable process; processes that are efficient and ensure that projects are done safely.”
“This is an issue where Louisiana has to speak with one voice. That’s the responsibility of this body. It cannot be parsed into parish-sized pieces.”
During the bill’s presentation, Rep. Travis Johnson (D-Vidalia) cautioned that parish decisions on these projects could be driven by politics rather than policy and data, and that restricting CCS ventures would have statewide economic and energy impacts—not just in the parish where a project is located.
“You want to allow every parish to make a decision that’s going to bottleneck the process,” he said. “[And] we’re losing out on billions of dollars to Texas and Mississippi because we want to hold a process up.”
The bill failed to advance by a 7-9 vote. The Committee then voted to involuntarily defer it—shelving it for the session—10-6.
The Committee then addressed the remaining local option bills.