By Rita Shirley LeBleu
A proposed Evergreen Sequestration injection project is planned for the Starks, DeQuincy, Fields, Hyatt area, involving approximately 22,000 acres, possibly the largest in Louisiana.
A sequestration injection project captures carbon dioxide from industrial sources and pumps it underground using Class VI injection well technology.
Save My Louisiana, a grassroots nonprofit advocacy group that opposes carbon capture and eminent domain is hosting a meeting to discuss the project.
The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Community Center, 6249 LA 109 in Fields, and include a presentation. Brad LeBlanc, 40-year biologist; John West, environmental scientist; Mike Trittico, retired biologist and longtime grassroots environmental advocate will be available to present information and answer questions. Questions are encouraged.
Trittico said in an email to the DeQuincy News that his concerns are for the neighborhoods through which the new carbon dioxide pipelines will travel from industrial complexes in Calcasieu, Port Arthur, Beaumont and Orange on the way to the initial two injection wells.
He has particular concerns about this project, he said, because the Evergreen application has been redacted significantly.
“This is different from the other CCS projects, for which we can see diagrams and other information,” Trittico said.
This means diagrams and other redacted information is only available to the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy and maybe the politicians who signed Non-Disclosure Agreements, he said.
The first two wells are a mile apart and eight miles from DeQuincy, eight miles from Starks and eight miles from Fields, he said.
“Interestingly 80% of the project’s estimated cost has already been covered by the U.S. Taxpayers with a $27.8 million grant from the Department of Energy, and the Big Beautiful Bill has enhanced the next tax benefits. Companies that will send their carbon dioxide to Evergreen will pay $21.25 billion less in taxes if Evergreen sequesters as much carbon dioxide as it claims it can in order to get the grant.”
