OPINION:
In August, gasoline prices hit their highest point of the year. Today, American consumers and small businesses are struggling with increasing energy costs, and our country — a net energy exporter just three years ago — is more reliant than ever on our foreign rivals for oil and natural gas.
As president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, I know how important it is for that to change. In Louisiana, our oil and natural gas industry has worked hard for decades to deliver affordable, reliable energy across the country.
Today, the Bayou State is one of the top energy-producing states in the nation.
To restore our domestic energy industry, however, I know that we need to support new and innovative ways to boost energy production.
In Louisiana, we’re trying to do just that, and that’s why state leaders are pushing for the approval of nearly two dozen new carbon-capture projects that will shore up American energy production and make it robust again.
Louisiana has the opportunity to become the carbon-capture capital of the South. Right now, state agencies are ready to dole out over $600 million in new government investments earmarked to build carbon capture projects in the state. Oil and natural gas companies have answered the call by proposing more than 20 new carbon-capture projects that will provide thousands of good-paying jobs across Louisiana.
These new projects have an essential role to play in U.S. energy production. If approved, experts expect they would help oil and natural gas projects increase production, and captured carbon itself can be used as an energy source.
That means we’ll be less reliant on countries such as Russia and China that want to hurt the United States or volatile nations like Venezuela that we simply can’t rely on to meet our energy needs.
But despite how important it is for our country to boost energy production, state leaders in Louisiana aren’t allowed to take full advantage of carbon-capture technology. That’s because agencies in the state don’t have the ability to permit and cite new carbon-capture projects.
Instead, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has that power. The agency hasn’t approved new carbon-capture projects at the rate we need to meet the growing demand for energy.
Thankfully, there’s a chance that might change soon: The EPA is weighing whether the agency should hand that responsibility over to leaders in Louisiana.
It’s important that the EPA gets that decision right. It’s time for the agency to give Louisiana control of carbon capture in the state so that we can put a technology that will restore our energy production to work.
• Tommy Faucheax is president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association.
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