Weekend at Bernie’s Comes to House Natural Resources

On Tuesday, the Louisiana House Natural Resources Committee will take up another round of anti-carbon capture bills that feel less like serious policy and more like Weekend at Bernie’s.

The movie’s premise was simple: prop up something dead and pretend it is still alive. That increasingly describes Louisiana’s anti-carbon capture movement.

For two years, activists and a handful of politicians have insisted opposition to carbon capture and sequestration represents a massive political uprising. But this weekend’s election results told a different story.

John Fleming’s U.S. Senate campaign leaned heavily into opposition to carbon capture. Yet he badly underperformed in many of the very parishes anti-CCS activists constantly cite as proof of overwhelming public backlash.

That matters because lawmakers are now being asked to advance bills that would undermine one of Louisiana’s biggest economic opportunities.

Carbon capture is not a fringe concept. Major energy producers, refiners, and chemical manufacturers across the Gulf Coast are investing in it because global markets are demanding lower emissions. Louisiana is uniquely positioned to lead thanks to its pipeline network, industrial infrastructure, geology, and skilled workforce.

Instead of competing with Texas for billions in investment and thousands of jobs, some legislators seem more interested in chasing applause from Facebook activists.

Reasonable oversight is important. Landowner concerns deserve attention. Safety standards matter.

But the bills before committee this week are not about balanced regulation. They are about trying to stop the industry altogether.

The irony is that many of the same politicians attacking carbon capture also claim to support oil and gas, even as major oil and gas companies increasingly support carbon management technologies themselves.

Louisiana cannot afford to reject every major industrial opportunity and still expect economic growth.

This weekend’s election results showed that anti-carbon capture politics may generate noise online, but the promised political wave never arrived.

Now lawmakers must decide whether to keep dragging this political corpse through committee — or focus on Louisiana’s economic future.