I have heard more than a few state legislators stand in front of crowds and say that carbon capture means jobs, and we should allow those various corporations (that I shall leave nameless for the time being) to move forward in our state because it is the pro-business thing to do.  Then there are those that are attempting to compromise by saying that we should leave it up to the local citizens to decide whether they want carbon sequestration wells in their backyard.  And while this is a solid position, and it looks after the interests of their local constituents, it ignores the greater problem of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).  Basically, CCS is transferring our tax dollars to private corporations to engage in an activity that will never, and was never intended to, produce a marketable product.

First off, I would like to give an atta-boy to Representative Chuck Owen.  He has written some of the best, most forthright columns that I have seen about CCS, right here on the Hayride.  I wish more of our elected leaders were this outspoken.  You can find those columns here:

https://thehayride.com/2024/12/owen-why-wont-the-other-side-speak-up-on-carbon-sequestration/

https://thehayride.com/2024/10/owen-for-these-families-carbon-sequestration-is-just-another-land-theft/

https://thehayride.com/2024/10/owen-carbon-capture-and-sequestration-is-a-fraud-being-perpetrated-on-the-united-states-of-america-and-especially-the-people-of-louisiana/

I really doubt that I can top what Representative Owen has already written, but this is a subject that I am quite passionate about, so I do want to give my two cents worth.

Our government has provided subsidies to industries for as long as I remember.  And while I do not particularly agree with that practice, I do at least understand the desire to aid a new industry until it becomes profitable, or to protect an American industry from unfair foreign trade practices.  Although for the latter, I think the tariffs that Trump is implementing are a much more capitalistic solution.  But CCS does none of this.

The end game of CCS is not to build a profitable industry.  It can never do that, because it does not produce a product.  It exists only because of our tax dollars.  If those tax dollars were taken away, CCS would stop immediately.  Not next year or next month.  Immediately.  If those corporations were notified that they would no longer be compensated for pumping carbon dioxide into the ground, they would be racing each other to the “OFF” button.  They are not in business to do anything for free, and they don’t care if the money that they make comes from tax subsidies or producing a marketable product.  If you offer to pay someone to do something, no matter how pointless it is, someone will most likely be willing to take you up on it.  If you pay me enough, I will gladly dig a hole and then fill it up for you.  If our government offers to pay corporations to pump air into the ground, they are going to do it.

Public tax dollars are the only way that CCS can exist.  That is simply wrong.

To make matters worse, we live in a deep red, solidly conservative state.  And we are using our taxes to fund a liberal agenda that is being employed in (or forced upon?) our very own state.  CCS isn’t happening in New York City or Los Angeles.  It is happening in Louisiana.  And our elected leaders often support it because it produces jobs.  That is the opposite of conservatism.  It is advancing a socialistic, government-controlled economy.  We take tax dollars from those who are producing something and give those dollars to other people who aren’t producing anything.  It is a pretty masterful stroke by the left, though.  They have convinced our leaders to let us become a dumping ground for their agenda, and just to sweeten the deal, we send them our tax dollars to fund it.  Our leaders say that we have a chance to be leaders in the industry.  What industry?  It is not real!!!  But we get a couple of jobs out of it, so it is all good…

You might say that I am just against industry, or that I am some environmentalist wacko.  I assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.  If I could have an oil well drilled right outside of my back door, I would sign on the dotted line immediately.  I would then sit on the back porch on Saturday mornings with my cup of coffee and watch myself make money.  If the government (through certain corporations) offered me money for a CCS injection well on my property, I would ever so politely show them the fastest way off my property.  If that well in Lake Maurepas were an oil well, I would not have much sympathy for those opposed to it.  But it is not, and therefore it should not be forced up on them.  In fact, it should not be happening at all.

At this point, it seems that our best hope to stop this insanity is for President Trump to get rid of the subsidies that are funding this nonsense.  If he doesn’t do that, then maybe one day I will go launch my boat in Lake Maurepas, travel out to that CCS injection well and watch them pump my tax dollars 10,000 feet down into the ground, never to be seen again…