WASHINGTON – As he addressed a roomful of carbon capture specialists at a forum Tuesday, Gov. John Bel Edwards paused, then abandoned his prepared remarks to make a simple request of the crowd.
He wanted their help, he said, in selling Louisiana’s public on the new technology.
“We have a responsibility to communicate with the people who are voicing concerns and objections to let them know why we believe carbon capture and storage is safe. Why we believe in the science,” Edwards said.
But: “If it’s just state authorities who are talking about the science and the safety of carbon capture and storage … we’re probably not going to be successful.”
Edwards traveled to the nation’s capital this week to speak at the 11th Annual D.C. Forum on Carbon Capture and Storage, hosted by the Global CSS Institute. He was the keynote speaker; it is one of several recent trips the governor has made to highlight the benefits of the technology, which has been controversial in Louisiana.
The state is planning a series of meetings to acquaint the public with carbon capture, which injects and stores carbon underground rather than emitting it into the air and contributing to global warming. Another meeting by the Environmental Protection Agency on June 15 will take comments on Louisiana’s push to assume regulatory control over certain carbon capture injection and storage wells.
The carbon capture industry is a cornerstone in the Biden administration’s efforts to lower the emissions that cause global warming. The federal government has put up billions of dollars in incentives to grow it; companies in Louisiana’s river parishes have already begun pursuing it. The state has four projects on the way and 20 others in the preliminary stages.
However, a proposal to store carbon underneath Lake Maurepas has attracted arguments from some Republican legislators as well as environmentalists.
“I believe that climate change is real. I believe human behavior influences that,” Edwards told the crowd. “If we turned off our fossil fuels prematurely and leave people in the cold or they can’t transport themselves, they’re going to say the hell with it.”
The transition is going to take time but the situation would be better if industry starts capturing and storing carbon emissions, he added.
After more than a century as a fossil fuel state, Louisiana already has the pipelines, infrastructure and the experience drilling wells to move into the growing billion dollar carbon capture industry.
Additionally, Edwards said that the state has more geologists on staff than the EPA has for the multi-state region that includes Louisiana.
State revenues have exceeded expenditures for the past couple of years and the treasury is likely to end up with another surplus for the coming fiscal year, so enforcement will be strict and ongoing, he said.
“We don’t think we can just do this faster, we can do this better. We can do this with more detail,” Edwards said. “We understand the importance of environmental justice. We’re committed to it. We’re baking it into everything that we do to make sure we are successful.”
He ended his speech with an invitation to the leaders at the D.C. seminar.
“I hope all you make your way to Louisiana and find out firsthand why you should be there with your investment,” Edwards said.
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