BATON ROUGE — The House Natural Resources and Environment Committee killed a bill Tuesday that would have prohibited private companies from using expropriation to acquire land for carbon capture pipelines and sequestration projects.
Emotions ran high during the four-hour hearing, which had to be streamed to an overflow room after the committee room reached capacity. Capitol staffers rearranged chairs to accommodate the crowd, while dozens more waited in the hallway.
House Bill 7, proposed by House Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, would have banned expropriation, which essentially uses eminent domain to force landowners to give up property. Specifically, this bill would have blocked land seizures for pipelines and carbon sequestration projects involving carbon dioxide. The controversial process is intended to reduce emissions by capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground.
Lawmakers, including Johnson and Rep. Shane Mack, R-Livingston, became emotional as they spoke about their families and the importance of land passed down through generations for both financial security and family legacy.
Mack said his father-in-law lives on land in Hungarian Settlement that his grandfather bought and protected more than 100 years ago. Hungarian Settlement is known as one of the largest rural communities of its kind in the United States.
Being able to purchase 40 acres there allowed him “to build a foundation that could be passed down,” Mack said.
“This land is more than dirt. It’s a memory. It’s an identity. It’s the reason a community endured,” he added.
He said HB 7 would help protect that legacy.
Livingston Parish Councilman Dean Coates, who supports the bill, told lawmakers the council passed a resolution backing it.
“This bill is about something simple and profound – the right of families and property owners to keep control of their land and livelihoods unless the public, not private corporations, clearly and directly need it for a common good,” Coates said.
Most people who spoke to the committee appeared to support the bill, while also emphasizing that oil and gas pipelines should not be restricted in the same way.
Representatives from the oil and gas industry warned the bill could disrupt development and cost the state major projects.
Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, said carbon capture pipelines should be treated the same as oil and gas pipelines.
“Louisiana is well positioned to lead in carbon capture,” he said, adding that position would be threatened if HB 7 passed.
Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Mike Moncla argued that the bill would harm the industry. “If you are truly for oil and gas, this is a bad bill,” he said.
Ultimately, a motion to report the bill favorably failed, with 12 members voting against and seven in favor. A subsequent motion to involuntarily defer the bill passed without objection, effectively killing it for the session.
Two related bills have not yet been taken up. HB 5 would allow parishes to decide whether to permit carbon sequestration, injection wells or pipelines. HB 6 would do the same but applies only to Rapides Parish.
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