The Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury voiced clear opposition to carbon capture and storage projects during a meeting Wednesday.

Police Juror Butch Lafargue urged the public to get involved and take a stand against the projects, citing concerns about potential contamination to drinking water sources.

Policy jurors also unanimously agreed to send a letter to officials in Washington, D.C., advocating for the elimination of federal tax incentives for these projects.

Lafargue expressed concerns that letters alone would be insufficient, saying public outcry is essential to stopping these projects and urged the public to make their voices heard.

“We’re all on the same team,” Lafargue said. “I believe we are all against CO2. I just wanted to express to the public that this letter that we are sending, I’ll be honest with you, my feeling is when that letter gets to Washington, D.C. they’re gonna go. ‘A letter? Okay.”

He highlighted the 2020 measures passed in Louisiana that allow carbon capture and storage projects, including eminent domain.

“So this train is coming, and it’s the public that’s got to get excited,” Lafargue said. “I’m not talking about 60 people going to Lacassine and saying it’s a bad thing and 80 or 90 people going to Allen Parish and saying this is a bad thing. If the public does not stand up, you stand a chance of redefining the water in Louisiana because if it leaks into the Chicot  Aquifer we’re done. Life as you know it in the state of Louisiana, and this part of the state, that lives off that is done and the public has got to get involved in that.”

“We are sending a letter, but I don’t think this letter is going to do a hill of beans if the public doesn’t stand up and make a stand and make a statement and write to their congressmen,” he continued. “It’s coming. It’s pretty much already approved and the only thing that can stop it is public outcry.”

Police jurors ratified the action of the agenda committee to approve a request from the Louisiana CO2 Alliance, of which the police jury is a member, to repeal the subsidies. The 45Q tax credit provides federal tax incentives for companies seeking Class VI injection well permits to store CO2 underground.

Currently, ExxonMobil and Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum are pursuing Class VI injection wells in Allen, Beauregard and Vernon parishes.

Parish Administrator Ben Boudreaux said any information cited in the letter, such as claims about deaths and accidents, should be sourced for verification.

“I think if y’all decide to move forward with that, we just respond to them with a contingency that any information that they cite on here, they source, such as the claims for deaths and stuff like that,” Boudreaux said. “I think it would be appropriate that they source that information because we have no way to validate some of this stuff.”

Police Jury President Steve Eastman also emphasized the importance of ensuring the accuracy of the information presented in the letter to officials in Washington, D.C., which will be sent by the Louisiana CO2 Alliance with the police jury as a signatory.

“In the letter that they (Louisiana CO2 Alliance) sent to us it cites various things that they’re using as facts,”  Eastman said. “I don’t want to get into a point where it is bogus information. We want to make sure that what we’re saying is accurate.”

Copies of the letter will be sent to the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and local congressional leaders.