WASHINGTON (June 30, 2023) – Louisiana—a state entrenched in the fossil fuel industry and with one of the worst environmental records in the nation—could end up overseeing regulation of carbon dioxide waste if the state’s bid for primary enforcement responsibility – or primacy – over carbon dioxide waste injection wells is approved by the EPA. Below is a letter from members of the Equitable and Just National Climate Forum (EJNCF) to EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan:
June 29, 2023
Michael S. Regan, EPA Administrator
Office of the Administrator
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Administrator Michael Regan,
We are deeply concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to grant the state of Louisiana primacy over the carbon dioxide waste injection program and about Louisiana’s ability to protect environmental justice communities’ health and safety.
Carbon dioxide waste injection poses risk of contamination of drinking water with drilling and injection fluid and public health risks from potential surface exposure to carbon dioxide. Louisiana already has a poor record on environmental justice, and we are not confident that it will carry out adequate safeguards to protect public health and the environment of surrounding communities where these facilities are located. The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Office of Conservation has had poor oversight over the state’s oil and gas wells, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has had issues monitoring and enforcing the state’s air quality regulations for industrial facilities. Expanding their authority would put the same communities that have long been overburdened by polluting industries at more risk and undermine the Biden Administration’s historic climate and environmental justice commitments.
There are now at least twenty planned underground CO2 storage sites across Louisiana, ten of which have pending applications for a Class VI permit. Oil companies, including major multinationals, are the majority of the developers of these sites. The granting of primacy to the state would open the floodgates to additional carbon capture and sequestration projects and could potentially further entrench fossil fuel production.
The predominantly Black, Hispanic, and low-income communities living near the industrial corridor being targeted for carbon capture and sequestration projects have borne the brunt of public health harms from decades of air and water pollution. Cancer risks from air toxics in Cancer Alley already disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities, with more significant impacts skewing toward the poorest communities and those with the highest percentage of Black populations.
We urge you to deny Louisiana’s request for primacy and retain the EPA’s given authority to administer this program in a responsible manner that prioritizes the safety of communities.
Sincerely,
Center for American Progress
Center for Earth Energy & Democracy
Earthjustice
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice Health Alliance
Green Door Initiative
Kean University Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research
League of Conservation Voters
Los Jardines Institute
Natural Resources Defense Council
Regenesis
Sierra Club
The Harambee House / Citizens for Environmental Justice
The New School – Tishman Environment and Design Center
Union of Concerned Scientists
We ACT for Environmental Justice
