2023 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 123
BY SENATORS CORTEZ, ABRAHAM, ALLAIN, BARROW, BERNARD,
BOUDREAUX, BOUIE, CARTER, CONNICK, FESI, FIELDS, FOIL,
HENRY, HENSGENS, JACKSON, KLEINPETER, LAMBERT,
MILLIGAN, ROBERT MILLS, MORRIS, PEACOCK, POPE, REESE,
SMITH, STINE, TARVER, WHITE AND WOMACK
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the United States Environmental Protection Agency to take such actions
necessary to timely review and grant the state of Louisiana's application for primacy
in the administration of Class VI injection well permitting and to express support in
furtherance thereof to maintain and extend Louisiana's global leadership in
transformative energy innovation.
WHEREAS, for well over a century the people of Louisiana, through their elected
representatives in the Louisiana Legislature and executive branch regulatory agencies, have
capably and conscientiously overseen the state's oil and gas industry, including enactment
of the first conservation laws in 1906 and the establishment of the office of conservation in
1921; and
WHEREAS, since the state's first successful oil well was completed in a Jennings
rice field more than one hundred twenty years ago, Louisiana has been a leader in exploring
the next energy frontier and pioneering the necessary technologies and capabilities,
including: the first over-the-water oil well in Caddo Lake, the first long-distance pipeline
from Shreveport to a Baton Rouge refinery, the first fluid catalytic cracker unit critical to
boost fuel production and octane during World War II, and the first offshore drilling rig and
producing well out of sight of land in the Gulf of Mexico; and
WHEREAS, in 2009 the members of the Louisiana Legislature had the foresight to
enact the Louisiana Geologic Sequestration and Carbon Dioxide Act and thus create the
statutory and regulatory framework enabling the Department of Natural Resources to request
that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allow the state of Louisiana
to administer and enforce the Class VI injection well permitting program; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Natural Resources, office of conservation, submitted
its primacy request in the fall of 2021, after more than two years of preparation and
coordination with EPA Region 6 as well as two public comment periods; and
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WHEREAS, the EPA published a proposed rule to grant Louisiana primacy in the
Federal Register in early May 2023; and
WHEREAS, for decades Louisiana state government agencies have been effectively
administering a number of federal regulatory programs to which the EPA has either
delegated authority or granted primacy to the state of Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, in 1982, the office of conservation Underground Injection Control
Section was granted primacy by the EPA to administer the approved regulatory and
permitting program for Class I, Class II, Class III, Class IV, and Class V wells; and
WHEREAS, for more than forty years it has been a core duty of state agency leaders
and employees to protect underground sources of drinking water, surface waters, and the
land from endangerment by regulating the subsurface injection of hazardous and
nonhazardous waste fluids; subsurface storage of liquid, liquefied, and gaseous fluids;
mineral solution mining; and injection for enhanced oil recovery; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana citizens employed at the appropriate state government
agencies are best qualified to evaluate Class VI permit applications in light of Safe Drinking
Water Act requirements due to decades-long experience and knowledge of Louisiana's
subsurface geology; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana's Class VI primacy application incorporates a memorandum
of agreement with EPA Region 6 reaffirming the state's commitment to inclusive
participation during the permitting process with a sensitivity to potential impacts on
susceptible sub-populations; and
WHEREAS, there are currently twenty administratively complete Class VI permit
applications pending at the federal agency representing tens of billions of dollars in potential
capital investment, tens of millions in metric tons of captured carbon dioxide emissions, and
untold thousands of Louisiana jobs; and
WHEREAS, EPA has yet to issue a single Class VI permit from a Louisiana
applicant; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana embraces an all-the-above approach to the nation's energy
supply as well as the ongoing energy transition, of which carbon capture and sequestration
plays an integral part; and
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WHEREAS, Louisiana is committed to maintaining its position as a national leader
in energy production, job growth in the energy sector, and innovative climate technologies;
and
WHEREAS, a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers economic analysis showed that
Louisiana's natural gas and oil industry supported three hundred forty-six thousand jobs,
provided $25.8 billion in labor income and contributed more than $54 billion toward the
state's economy; and
WHEREAS, the anticipated carbon capture, utilization, and storage activity in
Louisiana, coupled with new infrastructure and retrofitting needs, is critical to retaining,
sustaining, and growing the state's oil, natural gas, pipeline, petrochemical, biofuel, liquefied
natural gas, and hydrogen economy as it transforms into an increasingly decarbonized future;
and
WHEREAS, Louisiana serves a national strategic purpose in protecting our country's
energy security as it produces sixteen per cent of domestic energy, and supports America's
allies across the world with energy exports; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana officials have been in an active, years-long collaboration with
the EPA to establish robust regulatory requirements and oversight of Class VI wells in order
to ensure the safe implementation carbon capture and sequestration projects in the state.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby urge and request the United States Environmental Protection Agency to take
such actions necessary to timely review and grant the state of Louisiana's application for
primacy in the administration of Class VI injection well permitting and to express support
in furtherance thereof to maintain and extend Louisiana's global leadership in transformative
energy innovation.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, each member of the
Louisiana congressional delegation, and submitted for inclusion in the comments for Docket
Number EPA-HQ-OW-2023-0073.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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