Printed on June 2, 2025
By Jessi Parfait, Senior US Carbon Seize Campaigner, and Lindsey Jurca, Senior Communications Marketing campaign Specialist on the Middle for Worldwide Environmental Regulation.
In a serious win for frontline communities in Most cancers Alley, industrial gasoline big Air Merchandise introduced a big retreat from its so-called “Louisiana Clear Vitality Advanced.” Whereas the corporate insists the mission will not be but canceled and they’re nonetheless looking for permits for it, Air Merchandise is actively looking for to dump the carbon seize and sequestration (CCS) and ammonia elements of the advanced — a transparent sign that these elements of the mission are too dangerous, too pricey, or each. This backpedal is a warning signal for buyers nonetheless betting on CCS and ammonia as local weather options — or on the complacency of close by communities threatened by the development of those services.
The Challenge: Air Merchandise’ False Guarantees in Most cancers Alley
First introduced in 2021, Air Merchandise’ proposed $4.5 billion Louisiana Clear Vitality Advanced was billed as a state-of-the-art “clear hydrogen” mission. Cited in Louisiana’s closely industrialized hall — usually known as Most cancers Alley — the ability would expose native communities to extra well being and security dangers whereas claiming billions of {dollars} in public subsidies. To know the importance of this shift from “landmark megaproject” to a tentative facility now on the market in items, let’s look again on the historical past of the mission, the ability of neighborhood resistance, and why the battle is much from over.
The Louisiana Clear Vitality Advanced would have been Air Merchandise’ largest US funding, and, if the corporate finds a purchaser, is meant to be the world’s largest carbon sequestration mission. Geared toward producing blue ammonia — fossil fuel-derived hydrogen with carbon seize hooked up for transportation and injection elsewhere — the mission would come with greater than thirty miles of CO2 pipeline, 9 waste injection wells, and infrastructure extending into a number of parishes, together with into protected areas, just like the Lake Maurepas Wildlife Administration Space. The primary hydrogen manufacturing facility remains to be deliberate for allowing and building only a quarter-mile from Sorrento Major Faculty in Ascension Parish.
Greenwashed in Louisiana’s Most cancers Alley
Marketed as “secure and efficient,” CCS’ monitor document tells a unique story. In 2020, a CO2 pipeline leak hospitalized 49 folks in Satartia, Mississippi. The gasoline — an asphyxiant — stalled rescue autos and sophisticated emergency response. Survivors suffered well being results for a lot of months after publicity. Regardless of these identified risks, the US lacks federal security requirements particular to the distinctive threats posed by CO2 pipelines. Proposed guidelines by the Pipeline and Hazardous Supplies Security Administration (PHMSA), which included simple, sensible, and minimally mandatory measures, like gear and coaching for emergency response to a CO2 leak, have been lately shelved by the Trump Administration.
In the meantime, Air Merchandise continues to declare the mission would seize 95 p.c of its carbon emissions, an formidable declare contemplating specialists on the Institute for Vitality Financial Monetary Evaluation (IEEFA) have discovered that no CCS facility has ever even approached that degree of emissions seize. What Air Merchandise pitched as a local weather answer is, the truth is, a chance on dangerous, unproven know-how that has confirmed to do little greater than endanger already overburdened communities.
Amidst Rising Danger, Air Merchandise Retreats
Now, going through mounting monetary and reputational dangers, Air Merchandise is attempting to dump the ammonia and CCS elements of the mission, framing the transfer as a part of a broader “derisking technique.” This shift within the firm’s improvement plans is predicted to lead to vital delays and can seemingly push the opening of the ability to 2028 — if it strikes ahead in any respect. The announcement got here as Air Merchandise makes an attempt to stabilize its earnings and salvage investor confidence, however appears to point that false options like CCS and blue hydrogen are dropping credibility.
And this development will not be particular to Air Merchandise or its Louisiana megaproject. A public listening to on the proposed St. Charles Clear Fuels advanced in St. Rose, Louisiana, needed to be postponed and relocated after a whole bunch of individuals turned out to oppose plans to allow the ability. Additional north, teams in West Virginia are pushing again in opposition to plans to construct the Adams Fork Vitality ammonia manufacturing facility there, and one of many mission’s core funding companions retreated quickly after the announcement.
A Win for Louisiana’s Frontline Communities
Highly effective grassroots organizing straight impacted Air Merchandise’ retreat. Teams like Rise St. James, Involved Residents of St. John, the Lake Maurepas Preservation Society, and Earthworks have mobilized communities, spoken out at public hearings, and raised consciousness concerning the dangers this mission posed, from poisonous emissions to pipeline ruptures. In a area already burdened with a number of the highest most cancers dangers within the nation, their efforts have helped cease one other hazardous facility from taking root.
Past stopping instant hurt, neighborhood resistance has uncovered the broader flaws in carbon seize schemes and performs a pivotal function in shifting the political and monetary calculus for buyers.
A Crack within the CCS Facade
Air Merchandise’ choice to halt funding and search for different patrons to function items of its scheme belies broader challenges going through the so-called carbon administration business as a complete.
The oil and gasoline business is being closely sponsored by state and federal tax credit for CCS – like 45Q, which have come beneath sustained scrutiny because of the underperformance of CCS initiatives and the misuse of public funds. The volatility of those subsidies, coupled with the exorbitant prices of CCS initiatives and the general public pushback in opposition to the protection and well being dangers related to CCS, raises issues concerning the long-term profitability of CCS initiatives.
A latest report from the Middle for Worldwide Environmental Regulation warns that proposed initiatives might practically quadruple present US ammonia manufacturing, with practically all the proposed growth counting on soiled fossil gasoline. Regardless of how arduous business tries to promote ammonia as a “clear gasoline,” the very fact is that the manufacturing and use of fossil-based ammonia might considerably enhance greenhouse gasoline emissions and speed up the local weather disaster. Moreover, the large growth in ammonia manufacturing and thus the development of services just like the Louisiana Clear Vitality Advanced are predicated on discovering worldwide patrons for his or her merchandise — an assumption based mostly on largely speculative markets for as-yet-unrealized makes use of of ammonia. Certainly, Air Merchandise’ cited the failure to safe off-take agreements, or prospects for his or her ammonia, as a key motive for the change of their funding plans.
The Struggle Continues
This can be a vital win for native communities and a transparent sign to the market, however the battle in opposition to the specter of CCS is much from over. Air Merchandise remains to be pursuing permits for all elements of this mission, within the hopes that it could possibly discover a purchaser for its riskiest items. Which means proposed CO2 pipelines, waste injection wells, and ammonia crops might nonetheless threaten Louisiana’s communities beneath completely different possession.
However the identical frontline leaders who gained this pause are ready for what comes subsequent. Their victory proves that communities are knowledgeable, activated, and able to win a secure and safe future — and that the local weather transition can’t be left within the palms of polluters chasing public subsidies. “Louisianans know that this know-how would harm our property values, our land, and water, and we now have been loud and clear that we don’t need this in our yard,” says Kaitlyn Joshua of Earthworks. “The folks of Ascension parish are usually not on the market. We acknowledge that this isn’t the final step, and we’ll proceed the battle to fight CCS.”
“Their setback is our comeback,” says Tish Taylor of Involved Residents of St. John. Let’s save the youngsters and save our future.”
