Published on June 2, 2025
By Jessi Parfait, Senior US Carbon Capture Campaigner, and Lindsey Jurca, Senior Communications Campaign Specialist at the Center for International Environmental Law.
In a major win for frontline communities in Cancer Alley, industrial gas giant Air Products announced a significant retreat from its so-called “Louisiana Clean Energy Complex.” While the company insists the project is not yet canceled and they are still seeking permits for it, Air Products is actively seeking to offload the carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and ammonia components of the complex — a clear signal that these parts of the project are too risky, too costly, or both. This backpedal is a warning sign for investors still betting on CCS and ammonia as climate solutions—or on the complacency of nearby communities threatened by the construction of these facilities.
The Project: Air Products’ False Promises in Cancer Alley
First announced in 2021, Air Products’ proposed $4.5 billion Louisiana Clean Energy Complex was billed as a state-of-the-art “clean hydrogen” project. Cited in Louisiana’s heavily industrialized corridor—often called Cancer Alley—the facility would expose local communities to additional health and safety risks while claiming billions of dollars in public subsidies. To understand the significance of this shift from “landmark megaproject” to a tentative facility now for sale in pieces, let’s look back at the history of the project, the power of community resistance, and why the fight is far from over.
The Louisiana Clean Energy Complex would have been Air Products’ largest US investment, and is still intended to be the world’s largest carbon sequestration project if the company finds a buyer. Aimed at producing blue ammonia — fossil fuel-derived hydrogen with carbon capture attached for transportation and injection elsewhere — the project would include more than 30 miles of CO2 pipeline, nine waste injection wells, and infrastructure extending into multiple parishes, including into protected areas, like the Lake Maurepas Wildlife Management Area. The main hydrogen production facility is still planned for permitting and construction just a quarter-mile from Sorrento Primary School in Ascension Parish.
Greenwashed in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
Marketed as “safe and effective,” CCS’ track record tells a different story. In 2020, a CO2 pipeline leak hospitalized 49 people in Satartia, Mississippi. The gas — an asphyxiant — stalled rescue vehicles and complicated emergency response. Survivors suffered health effects for many months after exposure. Despite these known dangers, the US lacks federal safety standards specific to the unique threats posed by CO2 pipelines. Proposed rules by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which included straightforward, practical, and minimally necessary measures, like equipment and training for emergency response to a CO2 leak, were recently shelved by the Trump Administration.
Meanwhile, Air Products continues to claim the project would capture 95 percent of its carbon emissions, an ambitious claim considering experts at the Institute for Energy Economic Financial Analysis (IEEFA) have found that no CCS facility has ever even approached that level of emissions capture. What Air Products pitched as a climate solution is, in fact, a gamble on risky, unproven technology that has proven to do little more than endanger already overburdened communities.
Amidst Rising Risk, Air Products Retreats
Now, facing mounting financial and reputational risks, Air Products is trying to offload the ammonia and CCS components of the project, framing the move as part of a broader “derisking strategy.” This shift in the company’s development plans is expected to result in significant delays and will likely push the opening of the facility to 2028 — if it moves forward at all. The announcement came as Air Products attempts to stabilize its profits and salvage investor confidence, but seems to indicate that false solutions like CCS and blue hydrogen are losing credibility.
And this trend is not specific to Air Products or its Louisiana megaproject. A public hearing on the proposed St. Charles Clean Fuels complex in St. Rose, Louisiana, had to be postponed and relocated after hundreds of people turned out to oppose plans to permit the facility. Further north, groups in West Virginia are pushing back against plans to build the Adams Fork Energy ammonia production facility there, and one of the project’s core investment partners retreated soon after the announcement.
A Win for Louisiana’s Frontline Communities
Powerful grassroots organizing directly impacted Air Products’ retreat. Groups like Rise St. James, Concerned Citizens of St. John, the Lake Maurepas Preservation Society, and Earthworks have mobilized communities, spoken out at public hearings, and raised awareness about the risks this project posed, from toxic emissions to pipeline ruptures. In a region already burdened with some of the highest cancer risks in the nation, their efforts have helped stop another hazardous facility from taking root.
Beyond preventing immediate harm, community resistance has exposed the broader flaws in carbon capture schemes and plays a pivotal role in shifting the political and financial calculus for investors.
A Crack in the CCS Facade
Air Products’ decision to halt investment and look for other buyers to operate pieces of its scheme belies broader challenges facing the so-called carbon management industry as a whole.
The oil and gas industry is being heavily subsidized by state and federal tax credits for CCS – like 45Q, which have come under sustained scrutiny due to the underperformance of CCS projects and the misuse of public funds. The volatility of these subsidies, coupled with the exorbitant costs of CCS projects and the public pushback against the safety and health risks associated with CCS, raises concerns about the long-term profitability of CCS projects.
A recent report from the Center for International Environmental Law warns that proposed projects could nearly quadruple current US ammonia production, with nearly all of the proposed expansion relying on dirty fossil gas. No matter how hard industry tries to sell ammonia as a “clean fuel,” the fact is that the production and use of fossil-based ammonia could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the climate crisis. Furthermore, the massive expansion in ammonia production and thus the construction of facilities like the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex are predicated on finding international buyers for their products — an assumption based on largely speculative markets for as-yet-realized uses of ammonia. Indeed, Air Products’ cited the failure to secure off-take agreements, or customers for their ammonia, as a key reason for the change in their investment plans.
The Fight Continues
This is a significant win for local communities and a clear signal to the market, but the fight against the threat of CCS is far from over. Air Products is still pursuing permits for all parts of this project, in the hopes that it can find a buyer for its riskiest pieces. That means proposed CO2 pipelines, waste injection wells, and ammonia plants could still threaten Louisiana’s communities under different ownership.
But the same frontline leaders who won this pause are prepared for what comes next. Their victory proves that communities are informed, activated, and ready to win a safe and secure future — and that the climate transition cannot be left in the hands of polluters chasing public subsidies. “Louisianans know that this technology would hurt our property values, our land, and water, and we have been loud and clear that we do not want this in our backyard,” says Kaitlyn Joshua of Earthworks. “The people of Ascension parish are not for sale. We recognize that this isn’t the last step, and we will continue the fight to combat CCS.”
“Their setback is our comeback,” says Tish Taylor of Concerned Citizens of St. John. Let’s save the children and save our future.”
