Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead

Cue the music.

After weeks of noise, packed hearings, and screeching about carbon capture, the Louisiana House Natural Resources Committee delivered its verdict. The anti-CCS push didn’t just stumble. It collapsed.

One by one, the bills aimed at slowing or stopping carbon capture and sequestration failed to make it out of committee. The most prominent effort, House Bill 7, which would have stripped eminent domain authority from CCS projects, went down decisively. Other proposals to restrict pipelines or block projects met the same fate.

For all the big talk, the minuscule movement showed up for a fight and left without a win.

If you watched the hearings, the pattern was clear. Opponents brought energy, emotion, and a steady stream of worst-case scenarios. What they didn’t bring was a workable policy approach.

And that’s the key. Louisiana isn’t debating CCS in isolation. The state is competing for major industrial investments tied to lower-carbon energy and manufacturing. Policy instability is the fastest way to send those projects and the jobs that come with them somewhere else.

Lawmakers understood that.

This wasn’t a close call or a technical defeat. It was a clear signal that the “stop CCS” strategy isn’t ready for prime time.

Another storyline fell apart along the way. The much-discussed coalition of environmental activists, property rights advocates, and skeptical conservatives never fully came together. Concerns varied, priorities conflicted, and when it came time to pass legislation, there was no unified path forward.

That matters in Baton Rouge.

Here’s the scoreboard:

• Anti-CCS bills filed: plenty

• Passed out of committee: none that mattered

• Momentum: gone

That’s not a partial win. That’s a sweep.

None of this means the debate is over. Questions about land use, safety, and long-term impacts will continue. But if opponents want to shape policy going forward, they will need more than rhetoric. They will need solutions.

For now, though, the outcome is unmistakable.

The arguments were made.
The votes were cast.
The bills died.

Ding dong.