Our Views: For Carbon Capture Projects, Let’s Dial Back the Politics Nola.com

“People in the know, and even the local officials who inspired the legal fight, surely understood that Livingston Parish’s government was bound to lose when it imposed a moratorium on conducting seismic tests or building test wells in Lake Maurepas.

In Louisiana, state government has always jealously guarded its control of drilling, water bottoms and other facets of the oil and gas wealth that has been part of our economy for more than a century.

Air Products, a global hydrogen manufacturing company, sued Livingston Parish’s government in October for adopting a 12-month moratorium on Class V injection wells — which are used to inject nonhazardous materials underground — and “detonation of charges for seismic testing,” arguing that the moratorium clearly flew in the face of permits from state agencies to perform both in Lake Maurepas within the parish’s bounds.”