Hayride readers are familiar with The Center Square, as many of its syndicated articles make their way here. The Center Square is something like an alternative to the Associated Press, and with a far more mainstream editorial bent. I’m a fan of their work.

But earlier this week, The Center Square carried an op-ed, which The Hayride didn’t pick up, that merits a response.  I’ve asked the editors of that news site if they’ll accept a direct response to the editorial.  I’ll craft something within their guidelines if they let me.    The article is right here:  Op-Ed: Carbon capture is central to an America First energy vision.

In the interim, I’m just not going to let this sit.  I’m going to address the Pravda-esque narrative that burying captured carbon is or should be central to an “America First Energy Future.”   Those words are offered up by different apparatchiks of the carbon sequestration movement but no one ever says HOW.

The author of the piece represents a group called “Conservatives for Clean Energy”; the article drones on about how important carbon capture utilization and sequestration (CCUS) is, how safe it is, how it is just like enhanced oil recovery, how thousands of landowners have signed long term deals for long term money and how well property owners have been and or will be treated as this vital new thing goes forward.

As is the case with people who say these things, the author dances around the truth without confronting any of the realities of CCUS here in Louisiana.   He spoke almost of unicorns and bright candy without addressing anything that is real.   What the author and others have NEVER done is explain how this process adds ONE THING TO THE US ENERGY market.

As background:   The idea of CCUS came about because leftists in all corners of the globe wanted to change the earth’s environment some decades back.  They have been convinced for at least the entirety of my life that the US and other consumers and users of petroleum products and processes are causing massive shifts in the weather.  When I was a kid, the predecessors of the current movement were screaming about global cooling.    You can still find commercials crying about an impending ice age on Youtube.   Along the way, when that didn’t happen, the scare turned to global warming.    Now it’s called man-made climate change and the idealogues behind this insanity are still saying we have to stop using fossil fuels, “decarbonize” and change the way we live.     Part of changing the way we live is capturing and disposing of carbon.

CCUS was and is a cousin of wind and solar in it is part of an overall greening of the environment.    As much as I detest and think wind and solar on a large scale are foolish, they at least DO produce energy.  If the Center Square author offered up an idea that wind or solar might DO something, he might have some credibility in terms of producing energy.

CCUS doesn’t CREATE ANYTHING.  It captures exhaust, probably even pollutants, and transports them in pipes and buries them in the ground.  Permanently.     Permanently.

How does that action contribute to US energy dominance?  I am waiting for an answer.    I’ve heard people from trade groups say this.  I’ve heard private property owners say this who are going to earn big money by participating in this.   But no one.  Not a single person has offered up facts in terms of HOW burying carbon will help us become energy dominant.

They know it doesn’t.  The S in CCUS is burying waste.   It has NOTHING to do with producing energy.   They just blurt the narrative that this is going to help our energy market.    The ONLY thing it will do is put cash in the pockets of the capturing and transporting agents; those folks might be in oil and gas and it might give them operating capital.

But is that it?

I will repeat my offer for a debate.    I’m betting they won’t take it.

The people saying CCUS is important for the future of American energy either don’t know what they’re talking about or they are proliferating a falsehood.  If there’s a third answer and someone wants to discuss this, I will make myself available.    Anyone who knows me knows I am polite and will engage in a debate.   I will come with facts and maybe a geologist.   They bring who they wish.

Chuck Owen is a 2^nd Term Legislator.  He lives in Vernon Parish and represents parts of Vernon and Beauregard Parishes.  He is Chairman of the House Select Committee on Military & Veteran Affairs.  He serves as Vice Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security.   He also serves on House Education, Appropriation and Municipal Affairs Committees.  Owen is an honorably-retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with four wartime deployments (decorated for each).   He is an adjunct professor for 3 universities and holds a Ph. D from LSU, and an MBA and BS from Louisiana Tech.