BATON ROUGE —A bill to prevent the state’s use of eminent domain to support carbon capture storage and pipelines failed 12-7 in an extraordinarily tense House committee hearing Tuesday
House Bill 7, authored by House Speaker Pro Temp Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, marked an attempt to reverse a law passed in 2020 allowing the state to seize private land to bring more of the projects to Louisiana.
The House Committee of Natural Resources and Energy rejected the bill after a four-hour hearing in a room packed with landowners and lobbyists and punctuated by sharp exchanges between lawmakers and outbursts from the crowd.
The hearing marked the opening battle in what could be one of the most controversial issues of the session–the degree to which local communities and landowners can exert control over carbon-capture projects in their areas.
State Senate President Cameron Henry and House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, both Republicans, expressed concern earlier this year about letting local interests block projects that could provide economic benefits for multiple parishes or the state as a whole.
Lawmakers are waiting to see how Gov. Jeff Landry weighs in on more than 20 bills that have been filed to try to provide varying degrees of local say over the projects.
Expropriation, the act of seizing private land for public use, in this case carbon capture storage and pipelines, was the only issue on the agenda. Johnson opened the hearing stating he authored his bill to right a wrong he believed he had been part of in supporting the 2020 bill that would allow the state to seize land if necessary for the projects.
Johnson referred to the ratification of Amendment 5 of the Louisiana Constitution, allowing for expropriation of private property for public use. Carbon capture was later defined as a public interest.
“The government and someone that’s given the authority can use that law, can go to court, force the sale or use of the land for something you did not agree to and didn’t support it,” Johnson said. “That could be your land. That could be your mother’s land. That could be your grandparent’s land.”
Johnson called his bill the Louisiana Landowners Protection Act. He said he did not know of any land that had been seized so far for carbon projects. But he went on to say that when the law refers to public necessity, it should be used for the construction of roads, schools and levees and not carbon capture. In his statement, he emphasized House Bill 7 was not anti-business, nor was he.
“This bill doesn’t stop any kind of industry,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t stop carbon capture. It does not stop growth, and it isn’t anti-business. “I’m all about those things, about business and growth. I am all for it. I know you are.”
Carbon capture is the process of capturing carbon dioxide at emission sources, transporting it and then storing or burying it in a deep, underground location.
At least 65 projects are planned for Louisiana, the most of any state in the nation. The oil and gas industry favors the projects, while property rights activists, environmentalists and some local governments oppose them.
In his opening statement, Johnson referenced the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court Decisions and the Bible to support his opinion that the state should not have the ability to take private land for use for pipelines.
Johnson presented the Ten Commandments poster that is now required to be posted in Louisiana schools and referred to the commandments that thou shall not steal or covet thy neighbor’s possessions.
His statement was later contradicted by Rep. Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, who stating that Johnson "conveniently skipped over nine,” the commandment that one shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Johnson responded that he is not a liar.
“I would offer that we would remove the log from my eye before we start pulling out splinters,” Zeringue said.
Chairman Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, had to interrupt the hearing at times to address committee members – instructing them to take a breath – and the audience due to an outburst from onlookers who yelled that the corporations could not take their land.
Johnson's statements met varying degrees of support and opposition from committee members, with some concerned about the economic stability of the state if the bill were to be passed and others worried for the land of their constituents.
“We’re the Legislature… Do you think we have the right to change the rules in the middle of the game and think that we are a business-friendly state?” Rep. Marcus Bryant, R-New Iberia, said.
Rep. Shane Mack, R-Livingston, gave emotional testimony about land owned by his father-in-law and settled by his Hungarian immigrant grandparents.
“Every story told there is a reminder that this land is more than dirt,” Mack said. “It’s a memory, it’s an identity. It’s the reason a community endured.”
“I believe that HB7 protects property rights, and it’s essential to preserving communities, culture and generational continuity,” Mack said.
Paige Carter, the chief business development officer of Louisiana Economic Development, compared the public benefit of carbon capture to oil and gas lines.
“The ability to capture and transport CO2 – and that pure CO2 – enables Louisiana products to benefit public use globally,” Carter said.
Dustin Davidson, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy, clarified that the current eminent domain policy means that companies and landowners can form a contract to use private land. It does not mean companies can take land from owners.
Most of the people who expressed support for the bill were Louisiana residents
Suzanne Williams, a resident of Ascension Parish, said: “Donald Trump said that this is a hoax, with this Green New Deal.”
She expressed her concern about carbon injection wells and cited her experience as an employee with the Dow Chemical Company.
“Are any of you geologists? Or chemical engineers? You ever studied that? Well, I have. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You got a crooked governor, and that’s what’s going on here today,” Williams said.
Mark Guillory, a resident of Pineville, said legislators who supported bills that infringed on the rights to life, liberty and property were guilty of treason.
No one who opposed the bill spoke.
In an emotional but unsuccessful push for his bill, Johnson said: “We need jobs, and we need industry, and I hope to goodness the state is going to have those. It sounds like we’ve got some opportunities to do that. But not by taking people’s property.”
