Senator Henskins reads lengthy Natural Resources amendments; Senate postpones action

Senator Henskins spent an extended period on the floor reading House amendments to Senate Bill 244 — a comprehensive rewrite of statutes that would rename the Department of Natural Resources, create new offices, change bonding authority, and add provisions on carbon sequestration, pipelines, remediation, water resources and related fees and funds. After the reading, Henskins told the Senate he did not intend to seek concurrence today and asked that the bill be returned for further consideration tomorrow.

The bill contains dozens of substantive changes across energy, water and land-use law. Henskins described a voluntary alternative-dispute-resolution process under the department’s jurisdiction that would let parties select retired judges as hearing masters; those masters would issue draft decisions subject to 30-day review, and panels of three hearing masters would handle appeals of the ADR findings. The measure also revises how carbon dioxide pipelines are defined and when an operator can claim “common carrier” status — language that affects the use of eminent domain and whether the Louisiana Public…