A company planning to build a $4.5 billion clean energy complex in southeast Louisiana is suing Livingston Parish after parish officials passed a measure that blocks seismic tests and other preparations for sequestering carbon dioxide.
The chemical company Air Products filed the federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Louisiana after the parish passed a moratorium last month on any seismic survey and so-called Class V test wells in Lake Maurepas. Such test wells are employed to inject non-hazardous fluids underground.
Livingston Parish officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But Air Products sees the parish’s action as an attempt to block the carbon dioxide storage agreement it negotiated with the state of Louisiana, state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and other agencies.
The Air Products complex would be located in Ascension Parish, but part of the proposed carbon sequestering location is in Livingston Parish. The project would use natural gas to create hydrogen for industrial purposes, as well as ammonia, and would sequester about 5 million metric tons of CO2 annually to help the state reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
“We are disappointed with the results of the Oct. 13 Livingston Parish Council vote on the moratorium on any seismic survey and Class V test wells in Lake Maurepas,” Air Products said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record, “and in light of the council itself acknowledging at that meeting that this ordinance is invalid, we are pursuing our legal rights in court to have it declared invalid.”
Council members conceded that their own attorney had advised local officials that they lacked the authority to pass such a moratorium, the company said.
A moratorium that Livingston Parish passed in September barred Class VI wells used for injecting CO2 into deep rock formations until further feasibility studies were done. Air Products said the latest moratorium defeats the purpose of the initial measure because the October moratorium bars the needed feasibility testing procedures.
“We are committed to continuing to share information with parish councils, elected and regulatory officials and local residents about the project and its environmental and economic benefits, and employment opportunities,” Air Products said in its statement. “At the same time, we will continue the substantial amount of preliminary work required for a project of this size.”
The clean-energy project is expected to create 170 permanent jobs as well as 2,000 construction jobs over three years, according to the lawsuit.