(The Center Square) – Louisiana energy companies may be keeping major projects on the sidelines until a 2025 law meant to bring more predictability to oilfield environmental litigation takes effect, according to comments from Rep. Brett Geymann.

In an interview, the Lake Charles Republican said an oil and gas working group that included about 30 people – roughly 10 to 12 legislators and the rest industry representatives – heard directly from executives about why Louisiana projects remain stalled. No lobbyists were allowed in the room, he said, because lawmakers wanted “raw, unfiltered discussion.”

The result, Geymann said, was candor.

Executives “put their guard down,” he said, and described a business climate in which Louisiana investments are still being delayed because of pending and potential lawsuits.

One industry representative, Geymann said, told lawmakers that when executives sit in a board room and review stacks of potential investments, “we take the Louisiana stack and move it to the side.”

The industry, according to Geymann, was encouraged by a law passed in 2025 as a way to create legal predictability, but industry officials may still see the law’s two-year transition period as a reason to wait.

The law, among other things, became a vehicle for major changes to oilfield environmental litigation, especially so-called legacy lawsuits over alleged environmental damage from oil and gas activity.

The law was brought by Rep. Jacob Landry, R-Erath, and changed how remediation plans are developed, how damages and attorney fees are handled, and when the new rules apply. One of its most significant provisions creates a Sept. 1, 2027, cutoff. Lawsuits filed afterward are subject to a much higher burden of proof, a win for energy companies.

Industry officials have argued that the two-year window leaves Louisiana in legal limbo. Rep. Danny McCormick described the working group’s conclusion this way: until Rep. Landry’s bill fully kicks in, projects may remain in the queue, but companies are unlikely to move forward.

Geymann said the message from industry was blunt: shorten the timeline, and projects could move.

“If y’all could shorten the timeline, we’d have these wells up and running in a few years,” one participant said, according to Geymann.

The discussion also went beyond existing legacy lawsuits. Geymann said industry representatives raised concerns about how Louisiana could get ahead of future lawsuits over emissions, pointing to litigation in other states, including the Colorado Suncor case.

That concern reflects a broader fear among energy companies that today’s operations could become the basis for lawsuits years from now, even if companies comply with permits and environmental regulations at the time.

Supporters of Senate Bill 244 have said the law is meant to reduce that uncertainty by creating a clearer legal framework for environmental claims tied to oil and gas activity. But Geymann’s comments suggest industry leaders may not view the matter as settled until the grandfather period expires – or until lawmakers shorten it.

Louisiana has long relied on oil and gas production, refining and petrochemical investment as pillars of its economy. If companies are moving Louisiana projects to the side because of litigation risk, the state could lose out on drilling, jobs, tax revenue and related industrial development even after passing a law intended to reassure investors.

According to research from the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, the coastal lawsuits alone resulted in between $40 million and $100 million in lost economic activity, as well as 2,000 jobs.

“These are our friends, neighbors, children and grandchildren leaving the state to find opportunity elsewhere,” Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute, told The Center Square.

The energy industry, in large part, has been successful in their mission to limit their liability to what they call frivolous lawsuits. The same day Geymann spoke with The Center Square, he advanced a law that would ban certain legal claims related to climate change.

Legislative wins aside, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a potentially lethal blow to the several dozen coastal lawsuits currently pending in Louisiana courts, which will now likely be held in federal court.

Still to come is the ruling on Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, which will likely be heard in the fall.

If the court rules in favor of Suncor, it could make it much harder for states and local governments to use state law to seek damages from oil and gas companies for climate-related harms, further reducing one of the major litigation risks industry officials say is chilling investment.

Geymann’s comments came shortly after he advanced a bill aimed at shielding energy companies from the same type of climate-related lawsuits now before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Suncor case. House Bill 804 would would make it far more difficult to sue energy companies for claims related to personal and economic damages from climate change.

“People don’t understand that the industry that provides a living for myself and my family and other employees, energizes not only America, but is going to energize most of the world,” Landry said while the bill was being debated.