BATON ROUGE (Manship News Service) — A bill that would have let parishes vote on whether to have carbon sequestration wells in their areas failed in a 6-10 vote Tuesday in a state House committee.

The meeting of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment was packed as the committee heard several bills on carbon capture sequestration.

Carbon capture is a method used to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. After the CO2 is captured, it can be stored deep underground in a carbon injection well. This is called geologic sequestration, and roughly 30 such projects have been proposed in the state.

Most of the day was spent on House Bill 4, which sought to give parish governments authority over whether a carbon injection well is permitted within a parish. Rep. Charles Owen, a Republican who represents Beauregard and Vernon parishes, sponsored the bill. It would have let each of the 64 parishes decide whether to allow the projects within its borders.

Currently, the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources has the power to permit carbon wells in the state.

Owen prefaced his presentation with a message: He has no desire to kill carbon capture, only to give parishes and residents a say in the process.

“I want our citizens to have a voice,” Owen said.

Many Louisiana citizens made their voices heard in the committee room, sharing personal stories, concerns and pleas.

Members of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana spoke in favor of the bill. Linda Langley told the committee she was against a potential injection well site that many Coushatta members did not know was being built near their reservation in Allen Parish.

“Every person’s voice matters equally,” Langley said. “We didn’t know about it, we weren’t told about it.”

Langley said she only recently learned about the site when she received a phone call asking her to testify in favor of House Bill 4.

Several people, including Langley, expressed concern over how these carbon wells and pipelines would impact children and future generations. Avery Williams, a 16-year-old student from Grant, Louisiana, testified about how she lives directly next to an injection well and CO2 pipeline. Williams said she was given an assignment in school to research carbon capture and learned how dangerous it can be.

"I can’t vote, but I do have a voice,” Williams said. “As young people who can’t choose what gets built in our backyards, we can’t stop a pipeline with a ballot, but you can.” Williams received a round of applause.

Industry proponents spoke in opposition to the bill, saying it would have made the approval process more difficult and would have made Louisiana less attractive for businesses. Carbon capture allows for the use of a cheap natural gas in a way that is better for the environment than alternatives. Louisiana is uniquely suited for this process, making the state appealing to outside businesses.

“While respecting the need for local authority and choice, the reality is that [this bill] will bottleneck the process,” said Michael Hecht, president and chief executive of Greater New Orleans Inc.

Hecht warned that adding another layer of red tape might not kill Louisiana industry but would harm it.

“We’ve got to get Louisiana growing again,” Hecht said.

Several other bills involving carbon sequestration also failed in the committee. They would have limited the use of eminent domain to acquire property for the wells and increased safety requirements and the potential for people injured in accidents to attach liens on the properties to help collect damages.

Another bill that failed, in a 5-8 vote, would have placed a moratorium on these types of projects until July 1, 2026.