At COP26, John Bel Edwards tries to position Louisiana as a magnet for clean energy

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Gov. John Bel Edwards is in Scotland this week with an unusual sales pitch: Louisiana produces more greenhouse gas per capita, and stands to lose more from climate change, than any other state. Thus Louisiana is ripe for the world's industry to invest in low- and no-carbon projects, even as the state remains a key source of oil and natural gas during the waning days of the globe's carbon-based energy economy.

"I’m going to Glasgow in order to concur with world leaders, but also very large corporations and other groups that are in this space, to make sure that they know if they want to make a profound difference in the short term, that they should come to Louisiana," Edwards said of his visit to the United Nations’ annual climate conference. "And that we are going to be embracing cleaner energy alternatives to reduce our carbon footprint."

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“There’s no doubt that the world is in a transition away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner, renewable energy sources that greatly reduce our carbon footprint,” Edwards said in an interview before flying to 26th annual Conference of Parties, known as COP26. “Even oil and gas companies - I don’t care which one you look at; it might be BP or Shell or Exxon - you can see that they are quickly rebranding. They don’t want to be known as oil and gas companies anymore. They want to be known as energy companies because the market is demanding cleaner energy going forward, and so they’re participating in this transition as well.”

“I don’t believe the state of Louisiana can afford to be more pro-oil and gas than the oil and gas companies.”

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Edwards said the state also has an obligation because it produces more carbon dioxide per capita than any other state, largely the result of its myriad of oil refineries and chemical plants.

But the transition to a clean-carbon future will take decades, he said, and the public should recognize that while it is occurring oil and natural gas produced in Louisiana or the Gulf of Mexico can still be sold as substitutes for more carbon-intensive fuels such as coal in the U.S. and around the world.

"You’re not going to flip the switch and tomorrow get off of all fossil fuels," Edwards said. "You’re going to continue to need natural gas. You’re going to continue to need oil. And given that reality, we might as well avail ourselves of the most carbon-advantaged barrel of oil in the world, which happens to come from the Gulf of Mexico.”

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Edwards or other state officials will be meeting with a number of international corporations, including Sasol, BASF, Drax, and Air Products, that already do business in Louisiana to discuss their present and potential future efforts to reduce those emissions, Pierson said.

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Pierson said state officials will be meeting with Air Products representatives to discuss their plans to build a $4.5 billion plant in Ascension Parish. It is to produce "blue" hydrogen from natural gas, with a significant part of the investment used to capture and permanently dispose of carbon dioxide emissions in deep underground formations in five parishes.

The product is called blue hydrogen to recognize its potential to reduce carbon emissions. In manufacturing the product, methane-dominated natural gas is split into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen is made into fuel, and the CO2, instead of being released as a greenhouse gas, is stored.

This process has been criticized by environment advocates and some scientists as not really eliminating much greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, because other carbon dioxide is released in the steam that is used in the manufacturing process and because methane, a more intense greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is released during drilling and transport of natural gas.

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Also attending the conference will be New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who will speak at the opening of the U.S. Pavilion on Monday on the role of cities in addressing the climate crisis. On Wednesday, Cantrell will be speaking at a session titled "Investing in Net Zero: Overcoming the Challenges for Sustainable Finance and the Road to COP26."

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