Louisiana’s Insane Emissions Profile: A quick study of environmental injustice through a few graphics

Louisiana ranks 25th in U.S. population yet it always makes the top 10 list of CO₂ emitters no matter how you slice the information—per unit of GDP, per person, and in total amounts. 

How is that possible?

U.S. emission trends (on left) compared with Louisiana’s (on right).

In the United States, transportation, power generation, and industry combined make up about 66% of the emissions generated each year. In Louisiana, the industrial sector is responsible for 66% of the state’s GHG emissions. The residential, power, and transportation percentages are all in line with Louisiana’s lower population rates. 

The Gulf South Emissions website maps these emissions across the state, which makes identifying the concentrated industrial areas surrounding the Mississippi River and in the western part of the state very easy.

Industry’s overwhelming presence is most shocking when you look at Cameron Parish in Southwest Louisiana. Despite being one of the least populated parishes in the state, they have astronomical CO₂ and methane emissions. Cameron Parish—with its less than 6,000 residents—generates more CO₂ than the entire state of Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont.

Oil and gas companies—including multiple liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals—have a huge presence in Cameron Parish.

And these industries are generating the same amount of GHG as entire states who support over one million people and cover almost 10,000 square miles.

Most upsetting of all? If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and oil and gas companies keep getting their way, Louisiana will be home to dozens of more industrial complexes—including 12 new LNG export facilities—in the near future. 

You know, that near future. The one where we need to pump fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to save the majority of the species currently living on the planet.