The Technology Louisiana Hopes will Reach Net Zero
Part one The Carbon Capture Conundrum: The Technology Louisiana Hopes will Reach Net Zero
Louisiana is the nation's 31st smallest state, its population ranks as the 25th least populated, but despite its size and relatively sparse population it has one of the highest carbon footprints in the entire country.
The oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and other heavy industry that pop up across the state, all major emitters of greenhouse gases, are part of Louisiana's out-sized status as one of the biggest polluters responsible for 4-5 percent of all of the country's emissions.
Despite this, under Governor John Bel Edwards, the state has developed a plan to get the state to "net-zero emissions" in the next 30 years.
"We know that the future is going to be very different from what it is today. But we can do some things now to start reducing that carbon footprint."
Patrick Courreges - Department of Natural Resources
This doesn't mean that all of a sudden Louisiana won't be contributing any emissions, or that heavy industry will come to a grinding halt.
Net-zero doesn't mean zero emissions. Instead it refers to balancing out what is put into the atmosphere with what is taken out. For example allowing wetlands or other ecosystems that help pull carbon out of the air could, in theory, zero out what is being put into the atmosphere. While it obviously isn't as simple as that, a 23-person climate task force has unanimously approved a plan that is intended to put Louisiana on track to achieve this balance (the first of the southern states to do so).
"We know that the future is going to be very different from what it is today. But we can do some things now to start reducing that carbon footprint," said Patrick Courreges, spokesman for Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources.
While the plan was approved unanimously by the task force, the individual members were allowed to object to certain provisions included in the plan.
Some of the biggest objections came to the inclusion of a focus in a technology known as "carbon capture and sequestration" as a method of reducing carbon.
The theory behind carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, sounds simple. Using CCS, existing power and manufacturing plants could filter carbon out of their emissions, and then pump it underground. In practice, however, this process is much more complicated and extremely expensive.
Sara Sneath, a Louisiana based environmental reporter, has been reporting on the use of carbon capture and why so many don't believe that the technology will work to the scale the state claims it will.
"Basically the technology that you put on the industrial facility, on the smoke stacks, that takes a lot of energy to run. And so that adds a lot of cost to it, as does the method of taking from that facility and pumping it to, sequestering it into the ground someway that also costs money," said Sneath, in an interview for this piece.
"That sounds wonderful but the technology hasn't really worked out that way."
Sara Sneath - Environmental Reporter
The idea of CCS isn't new, and has been promoted for years as a way to keep industrial plants running while removing carbon from the atmosphere at the same time.
"That sounds wonderful but the technology hasn't really worked out that way," said Sneath.
In the last several years a few different projects have tried to prove the benefits of CCS, although none have really been able to have a major impact or even continue to operate. In 2017 the Petra Nova plant in Texas was touted for implementation of carbon capture that was said to be able to capture 90% of it's carbon emissions.
Only a few years later, however, that project was abandoned due to ballooning costs.
At the time the facility stopped using the carbon capture technology it had only captured 7% of carbon emissions.
So while the state holds up the technology as a way to get to net-zero, even they admit that there aren't many CCS projects that have been accomplished at the scale needed to have a major impact on Louisiana's emissions.
"You really haven't seen large scale operations of large scale carbon sequestration. It's been something that's been talked about, you've had some pilot projects here or there, but as far as large scale it just hasn't been the case," said Courreges.
The lack of "proof of concept" has environmental advocates concerned.
"We're wasting money, we're wasting public money on investments that are going to increase CO2 emissions, instead of putting the public's money in something that will actually get us on a road to reducing emissions and getting to net zero," said Jane Patton, an advocate with the Center for International Environmental Law.
Instead of focusing time and resources on carbon capture, environmentalists say more investments need to be made in renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind.
A sentiment shared by Sara Sneath.
"So at a certain point you kind of have to wonder is it cheaper, is whatever we're going to subsidize is it cheaper to subsidize a renewable energy that we know works and the price has actually been dropping on, or should we be subsidizing carbon capture technology that hasn't been proven at scale and also very costly," she says.
In response the state has said that renewables are part of the plan, but the actions of the state would suggest otherwise.
In recent years legislation has passed that would limit solar development, along with removing any form of tax incentives for renewables. All while continuing to subsidize the oil and gas companies, which are in favor of CCS, and making it harder for a renewable energy market to materialize in Louisiana.
We're wasting money, we're wasting public money on investments that are going to increase CO2 emissions, instead of putting the public's money in something that will actually get us on a road to reducing emissions and getting to net zero.
Jane Patton - Center for International Environmental Law
The issues go beyond just a lack of proven ability or the expense of removing carbon from emissions, but there's also the issue with then storing that carbon underground.
In order to get the carbon into underground caverns it requires a tremendous amount of energy and infrastructure. And as Sneath explains it the industrial infrastructure Louisiana has in place can't just be repurposed to move carbon.
"People who tout carbon capture will say that we have a lot of the infrastructure in place, that there are gas pipelines and natural gas pipelines that we could reuse for carbon. That doesn't exactly work though because it requires more pressure to pump the gas into a liquid and get it into the pipeline," she explains.
Those pipelines that transport carbon are so pressurized that they can also be dangerous, with sudden bursts or leaks proving fatal. Such an accident happened in Mississippi in February of 2020, causing the 200 residents of Satarita to evacuate, and sending more than 40 people to the hospital.
"It's not fair to have people to gamble with our health and our safety. And if they were in a situation where their families could not move and could not leave should something happen to have this ticking time bomb under them."
Jo Banner - The Descendants Project
Currently the proposed sites for storage follow closely with areas that contain the highest concentration of heavy industry. The two big areas would be in southwest Louisiana, the other in a corridor along the Mississippi River which has infamously become known as Cancer Alley.
"It's not fair to have people to gamble with our health and our safety. And if they were in a situation where their families could not move and could not leave should something happen to have this ticking time bomb under them," said Jo Banner, founder of The Descendants Project and a resident of St. John the Baptist Parish.
Residents who live in these areas aren't excited over the potential of high concentrations of carbon stored underground, worried not only of leaks in pipelines but also potentially getting into their drinking water. The fears of leaks aren't unfounded and research has shown that even if there aren't large outbreaks of carbon, most of the carbon slowly leaks back into the atmosphere anyway, negating any benefits of pulling it out of the atmosphere.
When asked about these concerns though, Courreges assured me that the state has taken leaks into consideration and they believe in their plan to keep that carbon contained.
The debate over Carbon Capture and Sequestration isn't going to go away any time soon.
The allure of a silver bullet to quickly and easily get the state to net zero is strong, and even Jane Patton says she understands "why it's easy to be swayed by the arguments of CCS."
Yet, she argues that this kind of policy decision is just too important to get wrong, and that time, and money need to be invested in cleaner technologies.
Where environmentalists do agree with the state, though, is the need to act and to work at getting emissions cut.
And Sneath believes that if Louisiana gets it right despite its size, and its population it could have a major impact.
"We are on the front lines of climate change in both ways, in that we have a lot at stake and also in that we can make a huge difference here because we have such a large amount of industry that is carbon emitting. So we can make a big difference not just for ourselves but for everyone."
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