The EPA is considering a risky, untested, and locally-unpopular plan to let the state of Louisiana take over and sub-contract all rules and regulations related to the capture and storage of carbon dioxide. This is an unnecessary and risky move by EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who has promised to prioritize environmental justice, and overburdened communities like those in Louisiana.

Two major factors are at stake in the decision:

1. First and foremost, local concerns over public health and community safety. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies like this have never been attempted at a scale this large, and the risks are real: Co2 can turn local aquifers into a dangerous acid that leaches toxic chemicals into drinking water; the pressure of injected liquids and gas can destabilize soils, cause earthquakes, and may just leak back out into the atmosphere through thousands of unplugged and abandoned wells; And most important, building CCS onto existing and planned fossil fuel facilities will add thousands of miles of pipelines, industrial facilities, and pollution from trucks, cars, and construction - right in the heart of communities hit first and worst by climate and environmental justice impacts. And, perhaps most important, it gives the authority over health and safety regulations for this new industry to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) - a local regulator with a history of environmental destruction and out-and-out racism that was, until this very week, under investigation by the EPA for civil rights violations.

2. This is a trial run for CCS across the south, and across the United States. The Biden administration has been leaning hard, some say too-hard, on the idea that carbon capture can reduce emissions to "net zero" at fossil fuel facilities. And scientists at the UN and around the US agree that for some hard-to-abate sectors like cement production, CCS will be necessary. But scientists also say that the first step to stop global warming is to reduce the production, consumption, and combustion of fossil fuels. In contrast, Louisiana proposes to try carbon capture mostly on new, fracked gas fired facilities that either generate electricity (at the expense of home grown wind and solar options) or produce plastics, dirty "grey" Hydrogen, and other petrochemicals. Building new fossil fuel infrastructure, and installing un-tested CCS with it is not the "net zero" plan President Biden promised us, and the EPA should know better.

Enter your information on the form at right to get a sample comment, and get connected to the EPA regulators reviewing this public docket. Comments are due by July 3.