Amid the tax-and-spending chaos of this past legislative session in Louisiana, one of the most important—and underreported—fights in Louisiana was the battle for your property rights. Before the dust fully settles on this session, it’s worth highlighting the key moments in the war against carbon capture and the conservative warriors who took a stand.

On the House side, Representatives Chuck Owen, Brett Geymann, Rodney Schamerhorn, and Danny McCormick led the charge. In the Senate, Senators Blake Miguez and Valarie Hodges once again served as the chamber’s conservative conscience in the fight, working to champion passage in the Senate.

Because the political establishment loves to rewrite history, it’s important to first set the record straight.

Carbon capture and storage (CCUS) first appeared in Louisiana in 2009, when Rep. Jim Morris authored the Louisiana Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide Act. Signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal, it authorized regulations for injecting and storing CO₂ underground.

Understand that in no time from then to now has there ever been a more productive use for carbon dioxide than to allow it to remain in the atmosphere where it provides an essential nutrient to trees, bushes, grass and other plants. More CO2 in the air, means more healthy, green foliage and it means better crop yields.

And CO2 is actually a trace gas. It’s less than half a percent of what’s in the earth’s atmosphere. Most of our air is nitrogen, and most of the rest is oxygen. There has never been any proof to indicate that more CO2 in the atmosphere causes global temperature to rise – what there is, instead, is a panoply of computer models which are built along that theory and have famously failed to predict the weather over the past 20 years.

Fast forward to 2020. In the latter half of Louisiana’s split legislative session—while the state was struggling to overcome John Bel Edwards’ draconian COVID lockdowns, church closings and vaccine and mask mandates—Senator Sharon Hewitt quietly pushed a bill under the guise of economic recovery, backed by LABI and LOGA, that put carbon capture on steroids. The Hewitt bill for the first time granted eminent domain powers to carbon pipeline developers, allowing private companies to seize land for the purpose of transporting and injecting industrial waste underground. It passed unanimously with little public awareness and was signed into law by Edwards.

The justification for this was that the oil industry had been so buffaloed by the American Left and their endless climate alarmism, and was so beset by the woke capitalism of institutional investment firms and the NGO crowd that they began demanding carbon capture subsidies so as to provide offsets to carbon dioxide emissions. It was a thieves’ bargain that many in the industry felt was the only way they’d be able to continue functioning.

Consequently, at the time, while conservative lawmakers were fighting to keep churches open, protect jobs, and end mandates, this bill was sold as a benefit to the oil and gas industry—an economic recovery tool. In reality, this new carbon-capture initiative laid the groundwork for the land grab and “climate change” wealth transfer through federal funding giveaways by the billions.

Enter the Biden administration and its Orwellian “Inflation Reduction Act,” which poured billions into every form of the Green New Scam nationwide. Predictably, the same Louisiana establishment forces jumped at the chance to cash in on carbon capture—at the expense of landowners and taxpayers.

And the current justification for carbon capture is that in order to sell liquified natural gas to the Europeans, it’s necessary to provide carbon offsets.

That’s a valid argument, and it isn’t. It’s true that a couple of years ago, when the Europeans began turning away from Russia as a source of natural gas amid the invasion of Ukraine, the issue of carbon offsets was raised in certain circles. But here’s what’s interesting – as European electric grids starve thanks to the poor output of wind and solar “renewables” which don’t provide sufficient baseload power, they’re no longer demanding carbon offsets. They need all the natural gas we can sell them.

Meaning we’re back to not even having a fake economic justification for wasting money on carbon-capture boondoggles.

Finally, this year, conservatives fought back. In a 12+ hour marathon that turned into a weeks-long effort to make a dent in this Goliath, Owen, Geymann, Schamerhorn and McCormick battled in the Natural Resources Committee, suffering defeat after defeat after defeat but refused to give up. The battle was waged to get these few out of committee and through the House. Hodges and Miguez worked the Senate with a special effort from Sen. Bob Hensgens to get these wins through. All of their Herculean efforts resulted in passage of some relief for property owners.

HB 304 requires that eminent domain disputes over carbon pipelines be heard in the parish where the land is located—not in Baton Rouge. Local juries, not bureaucrats, will decide if these private companies get to take your land.

SB 73 raises the approval threshold for CCUS unitization from 75% to 85% of landowners approving and forces state regulators to consider objections from local governments. It also targets dishonest tactics used by “land men.”

SB 244 reorganization ensures CO₂ pipelines are treated like pipelines for real commodities, such as oil and gas. No more regulatory loopholes for industrial waste. If these companies want to try to use eminent domain to take private land, they will have to jump through the hurdles of becoming a common carrier which will be a steep hill to climb.

HB 691 imposes stricter safety and reporting requirements on carbon storage operators, adding much-needed transparency and accountability.

The people of Louisiana have established a beachhead in this battle thanks to these conservative warriors.

With strong conservative leadership, the tide is beginning to turn in Louisiana against the Green New Scam. The fight for our land, our rights, and our future continues.