Company donates money to stock redfish in Louisiana lake where it plans carbon storage

Ryan Gandolini of Metairie displays a redfish caught in Lake Pontchartrain on Jan. 3, 2025. (Photo: Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)

Air Products, the company that plans to store carbon dioxide under Lake Maurepas, announced Monday it has donated $50,000 to stock redfish in that body of water and Lake Pontchartrain.

The donation comes as Air Products moves forward with plans to build a $4.5 billion hydrogen manufacturing complex in Ascension Parish. It intends to use carbon capture technology to trap emissions from the facility, take them by pipeline to Lake Maurepas, where they will have the capacity to inject an estimated 5 million tons of CO2 per year about a mile below the bottom of the lake. 

SLU deploys buoys in Lake Maurepas to monitor controversial carbon capture project

Many area residents and elected officials oppose the carbon storage project, fearing it will disturb Lake Maurepas’ waterscape and fragile ecosystem that has supported local fisheries and restaurants for generations. 

Air Products has previously supported fish stocking in Lake Maurepas through a $250,000 donation to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation. That donation paid for adding largemouth bass, crappie and catfish.

Its latest donation was made to the Recreational Fisheries Research Institute, a nonprofit organization involved with fisheries conservation and research. It’s known for starting the TAG Louisiana program in 1985.