BATON ROUGE — The work of the Louisiana Public Service Commission is critical to Louisiana’s plan to reduce harmful greenhouse-gas emissions causing climate change, according to members of the Governor’s Climate Initiatives Task Force.

Task Force chairman Harry Vorhoff and members Virginia Burkett and Bill Robertson spoke at the August 16th meeting of the LPSC in Baton Rouge. They said the LPSC’s regulation of electric utilities can help Louisiana achieve “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050.

The commission is more frequently targeted for action in the 172-page climate plan than the Legislature and Governor’s Office, said Robertson. In state government, only the departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources are given more responsibility to address climate.

Governor John Bel Edwards formed the 23-member climate task force in August 2020. The task force, representing public and private sectors, academic and nonprofit institutions, social-justice organizations and environmental groups, met for 15 months and held 49 public meetings.

The task force oversaw an inventory of greenhouse-gas sources in Louisiana. That study concluded that, unlike most other states, Louisiana’s carbon profile showed that two-thirds or 66 percent of its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases come from industry.

Most other states are targeting their electric utilities, which rely primarily on burning coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels to make electricity. In Louisiana the power sector only accounts for 13 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Robertson said the prominence of Louisiana heavy industry in the state’s carbon profile makes the climate committee’s goal more difficult because industrial activities are considered among the most difficult to decarbonize.

That’s why, he said, the climate task force calls for “industrial electrification,” the conversion of industrial processes at oil and chemical plants to electricity from their current use of fossil-fuel combustion.

If that electricity comes from renewable sources, like solar and wind power, Robertson said, it will help Louisiana industry to achieve its climate goals.

Another option for industry is to use low- or no-carbon hydrogen for high-heat manufacturing processes. Hydrogen made using renewable power is considered “green,” and hydrogen made at facilities capturing and containing carbon dioxide is called “blue” hydrogen.

Robertson linked several strategies from the climate plan to the work of the LPSC:

• A Renewable Portfolio Standard that would set requirements for Louisiana electric utilities on their use of wind, solar and other clean forms of energy. The LPSC last debated a renewable requirement 14 years ago and declined to adopt it, saying it would raise electric rates;

• Net-metering for rooftop solar users. Robertson said the LPSC should encourage more solar adoption by raising the value of sun power generated by Louisiana residents;

• Improving the state’s approach to energy efficiency by combining the EE programs of the LPSC, Louisiana Housing Corporation and Department of Natural Resources;

• Promoting cogeneration and the use of combined-heat-and-power at industrial facilities;

• Encouraging construction of new electricity-transmission systems to improve the delivery of renewable power inside Louisiana and from outside the state; and

• Giving large industrial facilities the ability to negotiate their own power purchases to satisfy their demands for clean energy.

Dr. Burkett, chief scientist for climate and land-use change at the U.S. Geological Survey and former secretary of the state’s Wildlife and Fisheries department, spoke to the LPSC on the implications to the state’s energy industry from climate change.

Using slides, Dr. Burkett said human influences have warmed the planet “at a rate that is unprecedented in the last 2000 years.” She said the levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere are the highest they have been recorded in the last two million years.

Burkett said chemical manufacturing, petroleum refining and natural-gas manufacturing are the leading contributors to carbon-dioxide emissions in Louisiana industry.

One slide by Burkett showed that, due to climate change, most of Louisiana would be too hot to work outside for more than half the day by the year 2090.

Burkett said the nation’s energy system is “projected to be increasingly threatened by more frequent and longer-lasting power outages affecting critical energy infrastructure and creating fuel availability and demand imbalances.”

Vorhoff, chairman of the climate task force and deputy director of coastal activities in the Governor’s office, reminded the members of the LPSC of recent storms causing deaths, property damage and power outages throughout Louisiana.

Vorhoff said the governor’s climate goals are in line with those of the Paris Accord, the federal government, 25 other states and many private companies, including Entergy, CLECO and SWEPCO.

Citing the greenhouse-gas inventory conducted by the climate task force, Vorhoff said Louisiana electric companies use much more natural gas than other states to generate power. They use less coal and far less renewable energy, he said.

Vorhoff said an “all of the above” decarbonization strategy can help Louisiana improve these statistics and achieve its climate goals. He cited recent business announcements to bolster his claim that the transition to clean energy is already under way in the state:

• U.S.-based First Solar said it will build a $1-billion facility in Iberia Parish to manufacture high-performance solar modules, employing 700 people;

• Both the state Mineral Board and the U.S. Department of the Interior propose to lease areas of the Gulf of Mexico for development of offshore wind farms; and

• The U.S. Department of Energy is investing more than $600 million in what is to be the world’s largest “direct-air-capture” project on carbon-dioxide emissions. “Project Cypress,” to be built in the Lake Charles industrial sector, could create as many as 2,300 jobs.

Vorhoff said Governor Edwards intends to pursue federal funding to help achieve the goals of the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

“This is a big opportunity for Louisiana to reduce its emissions, reduce cost, and increase energy reliability, while also stimulating private investment,” he said.

“Louisiana can remain an energy state through the 21st century, become a leader in industrial decarbonization and export that knowledge and those products worldwide.”

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TALKING CLIMATE: Climate Initiatives Task Force members (from left) Bill Robertson, Virginia Burkett and Chairman Harry Vorhoff speak August 16 to the Louisiana Public Service Commission.