(The Center Square) – A measure aimed at restricting the use of eminent domain for carbon capture and storage projects has been rejected by the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy in the Louisiana House of Representatives.
House Bill 7 was halted Tuesday 12-7.
Authored by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, the Louisiana Landowners Protection Act sought to reverse a 2020 law that allows the state to seize private land for infrastructure supporting carbon capture and underground sequestration. The hearing last almost five hours, held with a full gallery of landowners and lobbyists that made it necessary for Chairman Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, to send late arrivals to overflow rooms.
The decision keeps in place a 2020 law allowing the expropriation of private land for carbon sequestration infrastructure. It came after intense exchanges between committee members, lobbyists and landowners.
The bill’s supporters said current laws infringe upon fundamental constitutional rights. Johnson emphasized that it was not intended to be anti-growth.
“This bill doesn’t stop any kind of industry,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t stop carbon capture. It does not stop growth, and it isn’t anti-business.”
Johnson, who voted for the 2020 law but has since become its most vocal critic, told the committee he authored HB7 to “right a wrong.” The representative said that while he initially supported the measure to encourage Louisiana industry, he has grown increasingly concerned that the law effectively “contracts out” an inherently governmental power – eminent domain – to private corporations.
He said supporting industry is important, but it should not come “by taking people’s property.”
“No private business should ever force any private landowner into court in an effort to take his or her property for something that is not in the greater public’s interest,” Johnson said during the hearing.
Rep. Marcus Bryant, D-New Iberia, disagreed, saying passage of the bill would amount to “changing the rules in the middle of the game.” Changing the law would unfairly punish companies that invested in carbon capture since the 2020 law was enacted, Bryant said.
Johnson countered that the current law provides a “hammer” for landmen and corporations to hold over property owners’ heads during negotiations. He contended that companies don’t need to negotiate in good faith when they can ultimately threaten to take a landowner to court, where legal bills might often reach as much as $100,000.
Industry proponents contend that carbon sequestration serves the public interest by securing the state’s industrial future in a global market. They warned that passing the bill would jeopardize Louisiana’s standing in the global economy.
Representing the Louisiana Chemical Association, President and CEO David Cresson said the state is currently in a high-stakes race for capital. Cresson noted that industrial projects in the state tied to carbon capture are valued at over $100 billion, and he warned that if Louisiana signals it is not a place where this infrastructure can be developed, those investments will go to other states.
“These projects require large-scale infrastructure, and without the ability to assemble that infrastructure, it simply will not happen,” Cresson told the committee. “Louisiana’s competing directly with Texas, Mississippi and others for that capital. If we signal that Louisiana is not a place where this infrastructure can be developed, that investment will go elsewhere.”
Rep. Dewith Carrier, R-Oberlin, whose district includes Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, and Jefferson Davis parishes, reflected on his vote in 2020, saying that promises of an economic boom in the area had not panned out.
“This was an opportunity of the two of the largest companies in the world coming to Allen Parish … and making us gazillionaires,” he said. “That’s why I voted for that. And I do regret it because the boom didn’t happen.”
Industry defenders and state officials maintained that eminent domain is a necessary tool of last resort to ensure project viability. Dustin Davidson, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy, said current law primarily facilitates contracts between willing parties, although it remains available when landowners cannot be identified.
Davidson explained that under current law, “you have to be a common carrier in order to expropriate, which means there has to be a reasonable belief that the pipeline would be open for use by multiple parties to transport CO2.” The law is often used when the landowner cannot be found or if there’s an absentee landowner, he said.
When questioned by Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates, R-Tangipahoa, on whether passage of HB7 would “kill economic progress,” Davidson pointed to the state’s unique geographic advantages as a reason it would not.
“I think another way to think about it is, do those states have the access to the Mississippi River, Gulf, or major class railroads running through their state the way that Louisiana does?” said Davidson. “We’re just uniquely placed where our state can play a huge part in this, in the U.S. economy and the global economy.”
Representatives of law firm Jones Day testified at the hearing in support of heavy industry. Kimberly Mazzennga, an attorney representing industrial interests, told the committee that “the whole world is watching” how Louisiana handles these property rights disputes. She said the push for carbon capture is not just about new growth but is a survival tool for the state’s existing industrial corridor.
“We’re not talking about Shell’s assets that are nearly a hundred years old now,” Mazzennga said, adding that CCS is required to modernize facilities and ensure they aren’t “shuttered” due to an inability to meet modern global standards.
