Louisiana has become a flash point in the battle over carbon capture and storage technology.

As its name suggests, CCS entails the capture, transportation, and storage of carbon dioxide produced by industrial activity or power generation.

‘CO2 capture and storage will provide additional revenue sources.’

Long employed as a means of enhancing oil recovery, this technology has been embraced in various sectors as a way of simultaneously trapping greenhouse emissions and pacifying climate alarmists who regard carbon dioxide as an existential threat.

Just as liberals can be found on both sides of the issue, conservatives too are divided over whether to encourage CCS in Louisiana, one of only six American states approved to regulate all underground wells.

Republican supporters of the technology have touted it as a job-creating, industry-preserving means of fostering energy security, boosting the state’s global competitiveness, and attracting business to Louisiana — claims echoed by ExxonMobil in its Feb. 16 announcement of expanded CCS operations in the state.

Some of the most outspoken opponents of CCS in the Bayou State are, however, MAGA-minded politicos and residents unwilling to accept the potential fallout of what they regard as a threat to private property rights and an act of surrender amid a decades-long climate alarmist campaign against American energy.

In defense

Gov. Jeff Landry (R), among the lawmakers who have encouraged CCS in the state, noted in an Oct. 15 executive order barring consideration of new applications for carbon dioxide injection projects — an order purportedly aimed at enabling the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy to catch up on previously received petitions — that:

Louisiana’s industrial infrastructure “positions the State as a national leader in CO2 capture and storage, capable of seamlessly integrating CO2 capture in existing processes, enhancing America’s energy competitiveness globally”;”CO2 capture and storage will extend Louisiana’s presence in energy by creating 17,000 potential new jobs, investing seventy-six billion dollars in potential capital for communities throughout Louisiana from announced projects alone, and driving economic growth on a scale unimaginable for Louisiana”; and”CO2 capture and storage will provide additional revenue sources for local governments, has the potential to create a more diversified economy for Louisiana, and continue to serve as a catalyst for multiple industries, while sustaining and enhancing existing industries.”

According to Louisiana’s economic development agency, $23 billion in CCS-related capital investments in the state has been announced to date and 4,500 jobs are projected to result from CCS-related projects.

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Photo by F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cameron Henry, the president of the Louisiana Senate who has expressed concern about recent legislation that would empower local communities to reject CCS projects, has similarly pitched carbon capture as the way toward greater prosperity.

‘Another industrial experiment with serious risks.’

“It is something that is required for industry coming to Louisiana. Louisiana has to come to grips with that and find a happy medium to it,” Henry said.

Liberal aversion

CCS has historically enjoyed a great deal of support from the American left.

The Biden administration, for instance, committed billions of taxpayer dollars to advance CCS initiatives, while the Democratic Party endorsed increasing taxes on fossil fuel power generation where the technology is employed.

While supported by powerful elements of the left and identified by the United Nations as a way of helping to limit so-called “global warming,” some leftists who would apparently prefer to see the fossil fuel industry further humbled and America dependent on unreliable energy sources have exhausted a great deal of time and resources fighting the technology’s implementation.

Antagonistic groups in the Bayou State, which reportedly leads the nation for proposed CCS projects, appear to have drawn funding from out-of-state liberal organizations such as the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and a climate fund started by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

‘The only people that want it are the ones who are trying to abscond with these federal tax credits.’

Form 990 tax returns indicate that Healthy Gulf, one of the New Orleans-based activist organizations that has criticized and campaigned against CCS initiatives in Louisiana, has received a fortune in recent years from the Rockefeller Family Fund and at least $1 million from the Bloomberg Family Foundation Inc.

Healthy Gulf has in turn dumped grant money into other Louisiana-based anti-CCS outfits including the Lake Maurepas Preservation Society, which campaigned against Air Products’ proposed injection of trapped emissions a mile underneath the eponymous lake.

Healthy Gulf is hardly the only outfit opposing Louisiana CCS initiatives that has received money from out-of-state liberal groups.

Rise St. James touts itself as “a faith-based grassroots organization championing environmental justice and opposing the expansion of petrochemical industries in St. James Parish, Louisiana.”

The group has characterized CCS as “another industrial experiment with serious risks” and advocated against it — not just in Lake Maurepas but across the whole of Louisiana.

This supposedly “grassroots organization” notes on its website that it is financially backed by the Earth Island Institute, a mammoth international organization based in Berkeley, California.

The Earth Island Institute, which has itself received funds from various climate alarmist groups such as the leftist Tides Foundation, has pushed anti-CCS literature, warning about possible leaks and a potential “pipeline-building frenzy” in the event that the technology becomes more common.

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, a New Orleans-based nonprofit, even appeared to imply that CCS initiatives are racist, claiming that the technology is “one of the biggest threats to communities of color being harmed by the polluting industries that exacerbate our climate crisis and by the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be protecting them.”

The DSCEJ also joined Healthy Gulf and the Alliance for Affordable Energy in an unsuccessful legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to grant Louisiana primary enforcement authority over a class of underground carbon storage wells.

As with the other groups, the DSCEJ has received funds from deep-pocketed, out-of-state liberal organizations.

The Bezos Earth Fund — described as a “$10 billion commitment from Jeff Bezos to fight climate change” — reportedly gave the New Orleans-based activist group $4 million in September 2021. From 2020 to 2023, the DSCEJ received over $700,000 from the San Francisco-based Tides Center and Tides Foundation.

Healthy Gulf, Rise St. James, and the DSCEJ did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Conservative backlash

While some of those who oppose CCS appear to be liberals, both inside and outside Louisiana, there is substantial resistance among local conservatives — including Republican lawmakers.

State Rep. Chuck Owen (R), one of the more vocal critics of carbon sequestration initiatives, told Blaze News, “People who live in the country where they’re trying to dump this stuff do not want it.”

“I polled this twice. This is an 85% ‘no’ issue in my district,” said Owen, whose district includes the cities of Anacoco, DeRidder, Leesville, and Rosepine. “The only people that want it are the ones who are trying to abscond with these federal tax credits, knowing that it’s not going to do any good.”

Owen emphasized that much of the resistance is about property rights — about Louisianans’ aversion to having “private companies coming in and taking their land for money.”

A group called Save My Louisiana, comprising mostly residents and elected officials in Owen’s neck of the woods, filed a lawsuit in November over state laws enabling the expropriation of private property for pipelines transporting carbon dioxide.

The lawsuit, which was supported by Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming (R), alleges that laws permitting the use of eminent domain for CCS are unconstitutional and that such statutes turn Louisiana “into a national waste dump site.”

“No one’s against oil and gas. We want oil and gas to succeed here. But how do you equate the burial of carbon waste with energy?” Owen said.

Daniel Turner, founder of the American energy advocacy group Power the Future, told Blaze News, “The entire thing is just absolute bulls**t. The process, the money, the subsidies, the metrics, the goals, the technology — the entire thing is a farce.”

“Once we start playing this game that carbon dioxide is bad and needs to be captured, you are playing the left’s game,” added Turner.

When asked about the burgeoning industry promise of generating thousands of jobs in Louisiana, Turner said, “We’re going to create fake jobs for a fake problem and then wonder why we are further in debt.”

The disagreement over the value of CCS appears to be coming to a head in Baton Rouge, where lawmakers have advanced numerous bills aimed at hamstringing CCS initiatives.

“These bills are not anti-industry,” state Rep. Mike Johnson (R) said in January after filing a trio of bills targeting CCS. “They are pro-property rights, pro-local government, and pro-Louisiana families. Economic development should be built on voluntary agreements — not forced land seizures — and local communities deserve a seat at the table.”

Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” Donald Trump told the New York Post this week. Referring to Iran, he added that while he probably doesn’t need them, he would deploy ground troops “if necessary.”

With those words, the administration cracked open a door most American strategists hoped was bolted shut by half a century of hard lessons.

Modern American military history is a graveyard of campaigns that began with overwhelming tactical success and ended in strategic failure.

Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign, has already delivered what hawks in Washington have wanted for decades: the decapitation of Iran’s top leadership. The strikes that killed Ali Khamenei were meant to trigger a rapid collapse of the Islamic Republic. Early evidence points to something messier — and more dangerous.

The fundamental flaw in the administration’s logic is simple: Removing a leader does not remove a regime.

Khamenei is dead, but the Iranian state remains. A temporary leadership council has already formed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still holds the monopoly on force. Worse, strikes that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians — including more than 100 children in Minab — handed the regime a fresh narrative. Instead of a unified, pro-Western uprising, many Iranians are responding with nationalist anger and a predictable desire for revenge.

That reality should end any talk of “finishing the job” with a ground invasion.

Modern American military history is a graveyard of campaigns that began with overwhelming tactical success and ended in strategic failure. Vietnam. Afghanistan. Iraq. In each, the “mission accomplished” moment became the prologue to years of insurgency, political collapse, and sunk costs.

In Vietnam, the U.S. won battles and lost the country because it could not produce a legitimate political alternative.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, trillion-dollar investments in nation-building crumbled once American security guarantees lifted.

If the United States shifts from air strikes to a ground presence in Iran, it will collide with problems it cannot solve.

Start with geography and scale. Iran is a country of nearly 90 million people, with mountainous terrain that functions as a natural fortress. A serious occupation would require a troop commitment the American public will not support — and it would likely exceed anything seen in Iraq.

RELATED: Hegseth just delivered a precision strike on the legacy media

Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

Then comes the legal and constitutional crisis at home. Trump has prosecuted this war without a formal declaration — and without meaningful consultation with Congress. That bypasses the democratic safeguard meant to force elected representatives to weigh blood and treasure.

Escalating to a ground war on such a foundation invites a domestic political firestorm, fracturing the country at the very moment unity matters most. Disregard for constitutional norms does not merely weaken the rule of law; it undermines the legitimacy of the mission.

Next, look at the internal politics of Iran. The administration appears to hope Iran’s grievances can be leveraged against the regime. History suggests the opposite. Foreign boots on the ground almost always unify a population against the invader. An invasion would turn a struggle for internal reform into a war of national liberation and hand hardliners their best recruiting tool.

The anger in Tehran is not necessarily pro-regime. It is a primal response to foreign violation.

Finally, consider the regional fallout. The “Axis of Resistance” has already begun responding — drone activity, base attacks, threats to shipping and energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Six U.S. service members have already died in retaliatory strikes. A ground invasion would expand the conflict into a full regional war, drawing in proxies and potentially major powers into a fight Washington cannot afford and cannot control.

A ground invasion would not be brief, as Pete Hegseth has suggested. It would become a generational entanglement.

Washington can destroy targets. It cannot manufacture a stable, pro-Western political order at the point of a bayonet. Ignore the failures of the past and you guarantee a disaster in the future.

​Iran, Operation epic fury, Boots on the ground, Iraq war, Trump, Ayatollah ali khamenei, Israel, Ground invasion, Opinion & analysis 

When LeBron James opened up about cherishing time with his children during the NBA season, the conversation took an unexpected turn. After quickly correcting an interviewer that his daughter plays volleyball, not basketball, James joked that his wife is “done with this basketball s**t.”

And BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is curious as to why that is.

“I miss a lot of moments, you know, spending time with my kids because of my career, and, you know, any time I get over the course of my career, any time I got moments with them either individually, two of them, three of them all together, whatever the case may be, is always special for me,” James said.

“So, to have my daughter want to come on the road and be with me and spend a lot of time — yesterday we went to Alcatraz,” he continued.

When an interviewer interjected and commented on her playing basketball, James quickly responded, “She’s a volleyball player. Don’t get my wife mad. My wife is done with this basketball s**t.”

“I think LeBron very cleverly is protecting his wife and protecting them from the truth, is LeBron James and Savannah James want no part of sending their daughter into that LGBTQIA+ silent P women’s basketball world,” Whitlock speculates.

“They’re not raising a lesbian, and they want her in volleyball,” he adds.

Dre Baldwin believes it could be a different reason, explaining that it seems to him like “he just doesn’t want to even put that spotlight on his daughter the way it was on his sons.”

“And maybe his daughter might be better at volleyball than she is at basketball. And another kid who he doesn’t want feeling the pressure of having to quote, unquote ‘make it’ in a highly competitive space like basketball,” Baldwin continues.

“But, now that you bring that up, I hadn’t thought of that. That is an interesting angle, and I wouldn’t be mad at LeBron and Savannah if that is indeed their reason,” he adds.

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The Texas family of a 16-year-old girl who went missing from their hotel in Tennessee suspect the man she ended up with contacted her through online sites and apps.

North Carolina police said in a press release that the family had been visiting a relative in Tennessee when they reported the girl missing to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday.

‘Just because you are watching the social media — you need to watch all the social media.’

On Monday, the Rockingham Sheriff’s Office said it was contacted about the girl’s location hundreds of miles away, and deputies found her with a 27-year-old man named Dakota Wayne Vettor.

Police said the teen was placed into the custody of the Rockingham County Department of Social Services until she could be returned to her parents.

Vettor was interviewed and charged with felony abduction of children.

The parents told WGHP-TV that they were able to determine the girl’s location through her online apps. They said they believe the girl met the man through online gaming apps and social media sites.

“I just wish I could have done more,” said a tearful Jason Poston, the father of the victim.

“Once the relief sets in, it’s definitely a, ‘I should have seen,’ … ‘maybe if I’d have done this or that.’ Unfortunately that’s one of those hindsight things,” said a visibly shaken Jess Poston, the mother.

They had a warning for parents who allow their children access to online apps and websites.

“Just because you are watching the social media — you need to watch all the social media,” the father said.

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The parents said they had a simple message to their child when they were reunited.

“We love you,” Jason Poston recalled saying to her.

“That’s all we could say,” Jess Poston added.

Vettor was ordered to be held on a $250,000 secured bond, and police said further charges are expected to be filed.

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Author and podcast host Larry Alex Taunton believes there’s a reason America is under religious siege, and it’s because most Americans don’t understand the theological and political foundations of Islam — which is why so many have now come out in support of Iran after President Trump’s strikes.

BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler is not among them.

“The Islamification of the United States of America is under way as we speak. And no, it doesn’t make me an Islamophobe or a xenophobe or a racist or a bigot to say so,” Wheeler says.

And Taunton couldn’t agree more.

“A major problem here, Liz, is that Americans really don’t, Westerners in general really don’t understand Islam,” Taunton says, explaining that he’s been investigating the no-go zones of Paris — and there are some already forming in America.

“Places like Minneapolis, Dearborn, they’re future no-go zones — already no-go zones. And they’re future Gazas, you know. They’re kind of places that become staging areas, you know, for terrorist attacks or the kind of places where terrorists flee to when they’re attacked,” he tells Wheeler.

“This is what happened in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the Bataclan, where more than 100 were killed by Islamic terrorists,” he says.

And while there are politicians pushing to ban Sharia law, Taunton doesn’t believe that’s the answer.

“I can appreciate that, but you got to go after the root of the tree, and we have to ban Islam. And some would say, ‘Well, isn’t Islam protected?’ … My argument is no, it is not,” he explains.

Taunton points out that not only was their prophet Muhammad a murderer, but he was a pedophile.

“They’re supposed to read the Quran. They’re supposed to read the Hadith. They’re supposed to do the things that are commanded in it. And what we call radicals aren’t really radicals, Liz. They’re orthodox Muslims,” he tells Wheeler.

“And when you practice that religion according to those three things, which is what orthodox Islam is, it is by definition anti-constitutional. And that’s because it doesn’t believe in freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of petition, freedom of press. Doesn’t believe in any of those things,” he continues.

“So, that religion is by definition contrary to our own laws, not just the spirit of our laws, not just our culture, but it’s against our laws,” he adds.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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The Democratic primary race for Texas’ redrawn 18th district is headed for a runoff after the 78-year-old congressman failed to get over 50% of the vote.

Rep. Al Green will face Rep. Christian Menefee, who is only 37 years old, in the runoff election on May 26.

Green had accused Menefee of making a ‘deal with the devil’ to gain the support of the cryptocurrency industry.

Green was first elected in 2004 but chose to run in the 18th district after Republicans redrew his district to tilt more Republican.

With nearly all the votes counted, Menefee has only 46% of the vote, while Green garnered 44.2%.

The winner of the runoff will face Ronald Whitfield, who won with 55.1% of the Republican primary votes over the 44.9% garnered by Elizabeth Vences.

Menefee complained to his supporters Tuesday evening that Green had run a “negative campaign” against him.

“Congressman, you can talk all your trash about me,” Menefee said, addressing Green. “I’m going to keep being focused on integrity, on standing firm, on doing the right thing, and on serving my communities.”

Green had accused Menefee of making a “deal with the devil” to gain the support of the cryptocurrency industry and said it aligned Menefee with “Trump crypto cronies.”

He also responded to Menefee by saying that he was “talking truthful trash” when he accused Menefee of not showing up for work.

RELATED: Democrat releases statement on sexual assault allegations from 2008

Green recently made headlines when he interrupted the president’s State of the Union address and held up a banner reading, “Black people aren’t apes,” in reference to a controversial video posted to the president’s social media page. He was kicked out of the chamber.

The elderly Democrat also faced sexual harassment allegations, which he denied, and was censured by Congress when he interrupted a different Trump speech before a joint session of Congress.

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​Rep al green vs menefee, Texas runoff in 18th district, Al green fails to win nomination, Republican redistricting in texas, Politics