The 2023 Louisiana Regular Session has ended. HB 571 by Speaker Schexnayder was the only one of the nine CCS bills filed in the House to pass. HB 571 provided a balanced approach between providing additional protections for local governments and communities while permitting the CCS industry in Louisiana to move forward.
HB 571 by Speaker Schexnayder added new provisions to Louisiana law on CCS as follows:
- Requires additional notice be provided to local governments in advance of future CCS projects;
- Provides local governments with revenue sharing with the state on CCS projects on state owned land;
- Requires the storage operator to include a detailed environmental analysis as part of a Class VI injection well permit application;
- Requires the storage operator to provide quarterly reports to the commissioner on CCS operations;
- Requires the storage operator to provide notice within 24 hours to the commissioner of any noncompliance, malfunction, or failure relating to CCS operations;
- Enlarges the timeframe from 10 years to 50 years for which the storage operator must continue to monitor the facility after the last injection of carbon dioxide before the operator may be eligible to receive a certificate of completion of injection operations;
- Provides additional environmental requirements that the storage operator must satisfy in order to qualify for a certificate of completion of injection operations after 50 years;
- Increases the money that a storage operator must contribute to the Carbon Dioxide Geologic Storage Trust Fund from $5M per operator to $5M per facility with a $10M per operator cap;
- Makes explicit that the funds in the Carbon Dioxide Geologic Storage Trust Fund are also eligible to be used for any environmental remediation associated with a CCS facility, among many other items;
- Prohibits the legislature from sweeping the money in the Carbon Dioxide Geologic Storage Trust Fund for any other purpose without a two-thirds vote of the legislature;
- Provides for the filing of a short form notice of a geologic storage agreement into the public records to protect the personal financial information of a landowner from disclosure while providing sufficient public notice of the geologic storage agreement.
The other eight House bills on CCS died in either House committee or on the House floor. Those eight House bills could have effectively stopped CCS projects around the state, particularly the CCS bill which sought to remove eminent domain authority from CCS projects. By voting down these anti-CCS bills, the legislature has protected the opportunity for Louisiana to become a leader in CCS projects in the United States.
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