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Plan to stash planet-heating CO2 under national forests alarms critics
A proposal that would allow industries to permanently stash climate-polluting carbon dioxide beneath U.S. Forest Service land puts those habitats and the people in or near them at risk, according to opponents of the measure. Chief among opponents’ concerns is that carbon dioxide could leak from storage wells or pipelines and injure or kill people […]
LSU’s new energy institute faces global challenges, local skepticism
In Louisiana, the energy transition away from high-intensity carbon fuels is focused on things such as creating lower-carbon hydrogen and capturing climate-warming carbon from industry and directly from the air. But Brad Ives, the incoming director of Louisiana State University’s nascent Institute for Energy Innovation, wants to expand the possibilities to include energy sources such […]
How carbon stored underground could find its way back into the atmosphere
Generous federal tax credits are driving the onrush of carbon capture and storage projects being proposed in the U.S. But like a game of whack-a-mole, there’s a chance the planet-warming emissions could seep back up into the atmosphere after they are injected underground. How? Through any one of the thousands of abandoned oil and gas […]
Federal tax incentives create gold rush for nascent carbon capture projects in Louisiana
Millions of dollars of investments in new carbon capture projects in Louisiana — with more announced this past week — are unwelcome developments to some environmental activists in the state. “We’ve been trying to fix the oil and gas damage while at the same time trying to push the transition away from it,” said Monique […]
Petrochemical industry in Louisiana plans a ‘defense’ amid growing opposition
After residents of America’s “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana put a national spotlight on their fight for a healthy environment, the state’s economic interests and petrochemical giants are backing the creation of a new “sustainability council” to counter grassroots activists, documents show. In recent years, the activists have successfully fought construction of two multibillion-dollar plastics facilities […]
‘Sacrifice zone’: Gulf Coast helps meet global natural gas needs, but at what cost?
About 30 miles south of New Orleans, a construction site visible from space is rising. Sandwiched between the Mississippi River and disappearing wetlands, the 632-acre site is visited by a stream of tipper trucks and concrete mixers that stir up dust on Louisiana 23, the state highway that goes down to Venice, the last spot […]
How ocean wind power could help the oil industry
Offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico proposed by the Biden Administration could generate enough electricity for 3.1 million homes in Texas and Louisiana. But industry is eyeing the potential for offshore wind farms to instead power oil refining, steel and fertilizer manufacturing and other industrial processes. The administration has committed to building 30 […]