Just a few months ago, Estefanía Aultman was thinking about moving her family away from Ascension Parish, where they’ve lived for seven years. Aultman said she loves her community, and her son’s elementary school, but she worried that a major industrial plant coming to the neighborhood could put their health at risk.
But last week, with the release of a brief press statement, those worries vanished. On June 30, Pennsylvania-based Air Products and Chemicals cancelled its plans to build out the world’s largest carbon sequestration and storage project in the world, dubbed the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex. The facility would have refined natural gas by splitting hydrogen from carbon dioxide and routing the carbon dioxide through pipelines to inject underneath Lake Maurepas. The plant itself would be located on the East Bank of Ascension Parish, less than a mile away from Aultman’s home. Parts of the proposed pipeline would be located just half a mile away from Sorrento Primary School, where Aultman’s son will be in second grade this fall.
Aultman and other parents have been speaking out against the project for about two years, because of potential health repercussions of a pipeline leak near the school. High levels of carbon dioxide, like the kind that might come from a leak, can lead to suffocation. And leaks aren’t uncommon. At least three carbon dioxide pipelines leak every year, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report. A 2020 leak in Satartia, Mississippi led to 45 hospitalizations.
A model commissioned by environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice last year showed that a leak near the school would expose students, teachers and nearby residents to high levels of carbon dioxide that could cause respiratory distress in adults. And because carbon dioxide is dense, it would collect lower to the ground, closer to a child’s mouth and nose than an adult’s. Those health risks were never communicated to parents, Aultman said.
“We were in the dark for so long that none of us knew what was happening until it felt like it was almost too late,” Aultman said.
Ascension Parish is already located in “Cancer Alley,” the industrial corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that has been nicknamed for the disproportionately high rates of cancer, respiratory disease and pre-term births that many researchers say are linked to pollution from hundreds of nearby chemical facilities.
Resident and Sorrento Primary School parent Kheri Monks called the cancellation a “victory.” Monks has three children — all born prematurely and with asthma.
“So it was just really good news to see that stop come through, like relieve pressure on kind of an already overburdened area,” Monks said.
In a statement to Verite News, Air Products said local pushback was not a factor in its decision. Instead, it is cancelling the project — and another hydrogen facility in Arizona — because of expected low financial returns. Both cancellations will cost the company around $2.9 billion.
Aultman, who used to work patching leaks at ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge refinery, said she was shocked and relieved that the project has been cancelled.
“I just feel very relieved and I feel like we are worthy of having a safe community to live in and [to] clean air, and our children's lives are worthy of that,” Aultman said, “I know that they canceled this project because they didn't have the funds for it, but one way or another, I feel like us speaking out really impacted that.”
Other community members, like Kaitlyn Joshua, have been working to convince the Ascension Parish government — which had vocally supported the project — as well as Air Products’ potential business partners about the potential drawbacks of the project. Joshua is a senior Gulf Coast campaigner at Earthworks, a nationwide environmental protection group.
Joshua said Earthworks was engaging with Yara, a Norwegian chemical company and potential partner that had been in talks with Air Products to acquire the ammonia production and distribution arm of the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, to argue that carbon capture “was actually a bad economic deal.” There’s little evidence to suggest that carbon capture works at such a large scale, and existing plants around the world have had clogging and leakage issues.
But last week, Yara announced that it wouldn’t invest because “the project’s expected financial returns do not meet Yara’s investment criteria,” according to a Jun. 30 press release.
‘Profit is not more important than people’
The pressure campaign on Air Products’ business partners, combined with a public education campaign about the risks of carbon capture — mobilizing many in the local community against the project — created the perfect conditions for the project’s cancellation, Joshua said.
At first, Joshua and Aultman said they saw community members hesitate to voice their opposition to the project in fear of being perceived as anti-industry. But community members can acknowledge both the benefits and harms of having industry in their neighborhoods, and advocate for cleaner environments, Joshua said.
“You can walk and chew gum on this,” Joshua said. “You can hold industry accountable, not want it in your backyard, not want it near your schools, not want to potentially take a risk on pipeline rupture. … And also be looking to new technology that actually works, and things that are alternative to petrochemical build-out.”
It took time for the community to realize the dangers of what the facility, and the pipeline, might mean for their neighborhoods and school, Aultman said, partially due to a lack of transparency from Air Products and the government. As the parish reaffirms its commitment to attracting industrial facilities, Aultman said she wants more honesty between public officials and community members. She said her complaints to Ascension Parish School Board leaders went unanswered, and that safety protocols in the event of a leak were never communicated to parents. In the future, Aultman said she wants to see more transparency from parish leaders.
Aultman said school board leaders wouldn’t answer her questions about the district’s relationship with Air Products. The company has donated $280,000 to a local community college to start an afterschool STEM program at Sorrento Primary. The Ascension Parish school district did not respond to requests for a question about if and how the cancellation will affect the afterschool program moving forward.
“I hope that people realize that even though you feel like it might not make a difference, taking a stance for your family and your community is always worth it,” Aultman said. “I think especially with AI centers growing up all over everywhere, there's a lot of people that feel isolated and ignored, and I feel like this is a good example that communities still hold power and can make a difference, even if it's just a few people.”
Leaders in parish government and the school district didn’t acknowledge the adverse health effects the plant could have on the community, Aultman said. Ascension Parish government did not provide comment on that allegation, but in an emailed statement to Verite News, district Superintendent Dr. Edith M. Walker said she has been transparent about her interactions with industrial partners.
“We value all of our business and industry partners that help provide educational and workforce opportunities for our students,” Walker wrote. “I have been open, honest, and upfront with every interaction I have had with any business in Ascension Parish.”
An April community meeting in Ascension Parish brought over 200 people, Joshua said, a coalition of residents all opposed to the project — from wealthier communities near Lake Maurepas to those who already live next-door to petrochemical facilities.
“With this campaign, for the last several years, we've really been able to come together and decide together that no, like, at this point, profit is not more important than people, and we really do have to put ourselves first on this,” Joshua said.
Ascension Parish president Clint Cointment addressed the project’s cancellation through a statement posted on the parish’s Facebook page.
“While we’re disappointed, our commitment hasn’t changed,” the statement reads. “We’ll continue working to attract responsible investment, create good-paying jobs, and keep Ascension Parish moving forward.”
Aultman said she found the government’s response “frustrating,” and that the parish continues to dismiss the concerns of residents.
“We are fed up and finally speaking out,” Aultman said.
