Two new carbon removal sites coming to Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Louisiana officials announced on Monday two new projects that are expected to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide from the air per year and store it deep underground.

The new sites announced in northwest Louisiana by direct air capture company Heirloom are the latest in a slew of carbon removal and storage projects that have been announced in Louisiana. This state has had a front-row seat to the impacts of climate change. Proponents say this type of technology is crucial in the fight against climate change. However, critics argue that carbon capture could distract from other, more effective, efforts to reduce emissions and could prolong the lifespan of fossil fuel use.

Carbon removal and storage facilities — which capture airborne carbon emissions created during industrial production and store them permanently deep underground — have gained traction and garnered debate in Louisiana in recent years.

Advocates of the industry say that the practice is a safe way to reduce the state’s industrial emissions.

In a November 2021 report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s top scientists said carbon capture and storage technology must be part of the range of solutions to decarbonize and mitigate climate change. However, they notably added that solar and wind energy and electricity storage are improving faster than carbon capture and storage.

Opponents have pointed to oil companies investing in the projects, saying that it could prolong the lifespan of fossil fuel use. In Louisiana in 2022, ExxonMobil, CF Industries, and EnLink Midstream entered into an agreement to remove 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Other carbon capture projects have drawn ire from residents, specifically those who worry about the storage sites and whether they could threaten the public health of nearby communities, some of which have long been plagued by air and water pollution. However, officials say safeguards are in place to monitor the process and infrastructure.

While the removal of 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide is minute compared to the billions of metric tons of carbon pollution poured into the air each year, advocates of the technology say any little bit helps.

“It is a drop in the bucket, but more importantly, this is a blueprint and template that can be replicated in every city, every state, every country, and every continent across the world,” said Shashank Samala, the CEO of Heirloom.

While Samala recognizes that a single facility—whether carbon capture, a solar farm, or a wind farm—will not solve climate change, he said it is an “all hands on deck effort” and hopes the industry continues to grow.

Louisiana, in particular, has deeply felt the impacts of climate change.

Over the past two decades , hurricanes have made landfall more frequently in the Bayou State, coastal areas have been eaten away by erosion, subsidence, and rising sea levels, and the Mississippi River reached record-low water levels , causing barges with agricultural exports to get stuck.

Louisiana, which shares its southern border with the Gulf of Mexico, also relies on the oil and gas industry, which has tens of thousands of jobs tied to it. In 2021, Louisiana was ranked third among the top natural gas-producing states — accounting for nearly 10% of the United States’ natural gas production that year, behind only Texas and Pennsylvania. In addition, Louisiana had the fourth most energy-related carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Heirloom estimates that they will eventually remove 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year — equivalent to what would be produced by more than 76,000 gas-powered cars driven for one year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The company uses natural absorbent limestone to extract carbon dioxide from the air. According to the company’s press release, Heirloom’s technology reduces the time it takes for carbon dioxide to absorb in nature from years to just three days. The carbon dioxide is then removed from the limestone material and stored permanently underground.

The new Louisiana facilities will be located at the Port of Caddo-Bossier in Shreveport. The first facility will be operational in 2026, and the larger facility will start in 2027.

The underground storage site for the captured carbon dioxide is still being determined.

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