This week at the Capitol, we were at the House Natural Resources Committee once again to oppose several anti-CCUS bills.
One of the bills has died - HB 35 (Carter), which bans carbon capture projects in St. Helena Parish. Big win!
Several of these bills were “involuntarily deferred” which, most of the time, means that the bill is dead.
Those bills are:
- HB 10 (Carter): Removes eminent domain authority of carbon capture facility operators
- HB 453 (Mack): Requires that carbon dioxide injected for geologic sequestration using a Class VI injection well be transported to and sequestered in a storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico
- HB 454 (Mack): Requires a local election for the approval of carbon dioxide sequestration within a parish
Another one of Rep. Carter’s bills, HB 312, which places strict liability for damages attributable to owners of carbon capture storage facilities, passed, but will now have to be heard in the House Civil Law & Procedure committee before it can go to the full floor.
We were also at the House Ways & Means Committee, opposing Rep. Stuart Bishop’s HB 641, which would repeal severance tax exemptions on horizontally drilled wells, certain inactive wells, stripper wells and certain deep wells. Unfortunately, this bill did pass and goes to the full House floor, but it’s highly unlikely that it will pass.
Additionally, Rep. McFarland’s HB 634, a bill that we are pushing hard, passed the House yesterday by a vote of 95-0. This bill would provide for eligibility for a severance tax exemption for production of natural gas, gas condensate, and oil from any well drilled to a depth of more than 15,000 feet.
Speaker Schexnayder’s HB 571, which would create a broader set of rules for Louisiana’s carbon capture industry in anticipation of a large number of projects in the coming years, as well as give 30% of the money collected by the state for carbon stored underneath state-owned property to local governments, passed the House by a vote of 97-1.
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