Healthy Gulf, a New Orleans-based environmental group, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana alleging that state agencies acted outside of their authority in approving Air Products Blue Energy’s plan to construct a CO2 pipeline through the Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area.
Air Products, a global chemical company, plans to build a $4.5 billion blue ammonia and blue hydrogen complex in Ascension Parish and develop an accompanying carbon capture and sequestration project. The complex is expected to be operational by 2028.
The pipeline at the heart of the complaint would originate in Ascension Parish and carry CO2 through the Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area into a carbon storage facility that Air Products plans to build under Lake Maurepas, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Several tracts of land were acquired by the state between 2001 and 2011 to create the wildlife management area. Because the land was of a “high ecological value,” Healthy Gulf says, the use of the land was restricted to ensure conservation.
But in 2021, state agencies entered into a CO2 storage agreement with Air Products that included provisions for the development of a pipeline that would run through the wildlife management area, and in 2024, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries separately issued Air Products a letter that approved the development of the pipeline.
The lawsuit, filed with the 19th Judicial District Court on Tuesday, alleges that when the state acquired the tracts of land in question, it entered into agreements that include binding language prioritizing land conservation in its natural state and prohibiting the use of the land for any commercial activity, such as constructing a CO2 pipeline.
Healthy Gulf contends that while LDWF’s approval of the pipeline was premised on a state law providing that the state may lease lands for the purpose of CO2 storage, the wildlife management area is “specifically governed by a separate law prohibiting the breach of any term or condition of any donation which has been accepted by the state for wildlife management.”
Healthy Gulf claims that the approval of the pipeline was both beyond the state’s legal authority and in violation of state law and that the pipeline, if constructed, would “destroy and permanently scar” the wildlife management area. The environmental group, represented by Earthjustice, is seeking a permanent injunction that would prohibit the pipeline’s construction through the allegedly protected land.
In a statement provided by Air Products, the company says that while it is not a party to the lawsuit, it is reviewing it.
“Air Products’ Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, including its proposed CO2 pipeline, will comply with all state and federal laws and regulations, as well as any applicable donation conditions within the Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area,” the statement reads. “Our pipeline route predominantly follows an existing pipeline corridor in the WMA and was developed after extensive consultation with state and federal agencies, including the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Office of Coastal Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We are required to mitigate any environmental impacts from our pipeline.”
