Is CCS an asset or a liability? Officials, residents & economists weigh in

VERNON PARISH, La. (KALB) - While the legal framework for carbon capture sequestration projects is not new to Louisiana, the consideration and approval for injection well permits have been growing topics of concern for citizens starting in 2024, leading into 2025.

Among the concerns introduced by Louisiana residents, are questions surrounding property rights, potential health risks, and environmental contamination.

Under state law, CO2 pipeline constructors can express eminent domain privileges in the same sphere of influence as other pipeline constructors.

Pitkin resident Mike Snell is a landowner who said he faced threats of land expropriation for pipeline construction after the land around his property was leased for a carbon capture project.

“It came up for sale this past year, and now that all of this came about, now they don’t want to sell me the land”

When offered an opportunity to lease his land for pipeline construction, he accepted, believing he had no other option and that it would be similar to the oil and gas industry.

“Times were tough, so it seemed like a good thing at the time,” Snell said.

Snell believes he did not have a choice over the sovereignty of his land, citing fears that pipeline constructors would have enforced eminent domain powers on his land regardless of his choice to lease.

In addition to the potential loss of his property rights, he fears for the health of his family’s future as they draw water from a well on his land, not from the city.

Carbonic acid, which is formed when CO2 mixes with water is described by the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources as corrosive. If injected CO2 were to mix with groundwater, they said it could “cause traditional steel casings to corrode and become more brittle”.

“I’m not on city water, so what’s gonna happen to my drinking water right here in my own home?”

Snell’s concerns are shared by fellow landowners; Michael Nichols, also from Pitkin, believes the projects will affect not only property owners but the general public due to potential risks to drinking water associated with sequestration pipes. To reach their proper injection depth, these pipes must be drilled through any aquifers in-between that depth and the surface.

“Don’t bring it amongst people and risk it destroying our communities and risk damaging our water. Let’s not take that risk.”

In response to public outcry, Louisiana State Representatives Rodney Schamerhorn and Charles “Chuck” Owen have filed or plan to file legislative bills in the 2025 legislative session targeting the growing industrial technology. Specifically, State Rep. Schammerhorn plans to introduce a bill eliminating eminent domain powers from pipeline constructors, which would require all land involved in a CO2 pipeline’s construction to be leased or purchased.

“If you want to run your pipeline through, you’re going to need to buy and get approval to do it. You’re not going to be able to do the 75%-25%, where if you get 75% of the landowners, you can force the 25%”

State Rep. Charles “Chuck” Owen questions the efficacy of the CCS projects. “It won’t do any good,” said Owen. “I do not believe we should surrender our personal property rights and potentially damage the environment over something that is not settled.”

RELATED: State Rep. Chuck Owen discusses carbon capture sequestration on KALB’s Voice of the People

This is a sentiment shared by State Rep. Schamerhorn, who questions the validity of studies conducted on carbon capture sequestration. “I really feel like we’re going off the studies of the business world and not our own studies and justifications,” said Schamerhorn.“If you’re paying millions of dollars to a certain entity to do a study on something, then they may want to leave out all the bad stuff and concentrate on the good stuff.”

But What Are The Benefits?

Louisiana Economic Development (LED) contends that Carbon Capture Storage and other emission-reduction projects are key opportunities to enhance Louisiana’s economy, which fit well with the state’s emphasis on existing LNG businesses and infrastructure. To LED, CCS projects “serve as a catalyst for long-term economic development.”

According to Louisiana Economic Development’s website, the state’s current pipeline infrastructure complements the expansion of CCS projects, stating that some existing pipelines in Louisiana have already begun transporting compressed carbon to and from other states.

Kris Roberson, the Chief Operating Officer of CapturePoint, a company with injection projects proposed in Vernon Parish, agrees with LED’s assessments.

“There are several industries that are currently moving on CO2 sequestration projects. Those include ammonia, natural gas processing, power generation, and others” said Roberson. “There’s a number of different projects that specifically need CO2 sequestration. Each one needs their own support group of workers and other industries to support their projects while they’re being developed.”

Alongside potential economic development, Roberson argues the projects themselves could potentially encourage more funding to be diverted towards the state’s educational system, through either local government allocation or corporate/business donations, citing CapturePoint’s partnership with the Vernon Parish School Board.

“We would also like to see a portion of the revenue generated through these projects each year, go directly into local communities where these projects are, and go directly into these schools [so they] benefit these kinds of programs”

LED estimates the state stands to gain roughly 4,500 jobs from proposed projects stemming from, or in direct relation to carbon capture prospects. Alongside potential job openings, the authority estimates over 60 billion dollars in assets and capital will enter Louisiana from CCS-related prospects. Among the list of benefiting projects is Meta’s proposed multi-billion dollar AI data center; Governor Jeff Landry celebrated the project as one of Louisiana’s largest private capital investments in the state’s history.

Denbury, a CCS-focused company, projected in 2022 that one CCS project could cost between $1.4-$2.6 billion over a twenty-year period.

Bia Energy’s $1.2 billion project in Caddo-Bossier, another monumental announcement for Louisiana’s oil and gas industry, is a blue-hydrogen plant. The ‘blue’ in blue-hydrogen is another name for carbon capture, which they plan to implement through a partnership with CapturePoint.

ExxonMobil, whose carbon capture projects are the focus of an upcoming public meeting in Allen Parish, has invested billions into implementing CCS. In 2023, they purchased Denbury for $4.9 billion. Six days prior to the purchase announcement, the EPA received an application from Denbury for a carbon injection project with six wells across Allen, Beauregard, and Vernon Parishes named ‘Project Draco.’

Project Draco, which is on LDNR’s most recent list of Class VI applications, retains the Denbury name despite the company’s acquisition.

There exists a gap between what industry believes and the views of Louisiana’s own citizens. As the 2025 Regular session draws closer, companies, citizens and the government itself will soon have to contend with these benefits and risks to decide...Is it worth it?

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