A bill that passed out of the Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday would label natural gas, the predominant energy source in Mississippi, “clean energy” despite its greenhouse gas emissions.
Sen. Joel Carter, R-Gulfport, introduced Senate Bill 2231, and explained the idea behind it is to take advantage of clean energy benefits as well as to avoid federal regulations that might punish the use of non-clean energy.
“Our footprint in Mississippi is largely natural gas,” Carter told Mississippi Today on Thursday. “If we weren’t able to use natural gas for some reason — if the federal government outlawed it or put restrictions on it — it would be detrimental to the economic development in our state.”
When asked how natural gas could be considered a clean energy, the senator described a “gray area” around what is and isn’t considered clean.
“There’s going to be people that make arguments that oil is clean energy,” Carter, who chairs the Energy Committee, said. “There’s a lot of arguments, there’s a lot of gray area, and that’s what we attempted to do is remove some gray area as to what clean energy is considered in Mississippi.”
Ohio and Tennessee passed similar laws in 2023, and in 2024 Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a proclamation stating natural gas is clean.
Natural gas is widely considered cleaner than coal as an energy source, but burning gas still produces carbon emissions, and methane that leaks out through the extraction and transportation of gas is much more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of trapping heat in the atmosphere. Definitions of clean energy in multiple academic resources, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy’s website, exclude natural gas.
Daniel Tait, research and communications director for the Energy and Policy Institute, blasted the proposal.
“This is a joke,” Tait said. “Natural gas is not clean.”
The Senate committee also amended the bill, which Carter admitted may “need some work” on the floor, that includes an amendment defining wood pellets as “clean energy.” Despite the recent growth of the wood pellet industry, including in Mississippi, scientists have for years contested that burning wood for energy leads to more carbon in the atmosphere than coal or gas.
Proposal to pause wind projects
Another energy proposal lawmakers are considering is Senate Bill 2227, which would put a one-year moratorium on new wind energy projects while a study committee evaluates any potential harm wind turbines might cause to aquifers or agriculture.
Sen. Brian Rhodes, a Republican from Rankin County, introduced the bill, and Rep. Bill Pigott, R-Tylertown, brought the same proposal to the House in HB 1212. Neither responded to requests for comment by this story’s publication. Rhodes’ bill is in the Senate Energy Committee. Pigott’s has been referred to the House Agriculture Committee.
While the bill’s goal is to study potential hazards, the proposal takes the position that wind turbines are having an “impact” on “aquifers and other nearby water sources,” a point wind advocates contest.
“There is no documented evidence of wind turbines polluting aquifers or harming groundwater when properly permitted and constructed,” Jaxon Tolbert, with the Southeastern Wind Coalition, said, explaining that the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act include protections against such impacts.
Other concerns the bill raises are safety issues for crop dusters and turbines spreading farming chemicals with their gust. Tolbert argued there isn’t evidence for either concern.
“Crop dusters already navigate around wind farms and other obstacles across states like Texas and Oklahoma, and crop dusters have sprayed several times at (Mississippi’s wind facility near Tunica) with no issue,” he told Mississippi Today via e-mail. “(Federal Aviation Administration) regulations require all towers over 50 feet to be marked for safety.”
Carter said his committee will take up the bill on Monday. During a discussion of the bill Thursday, he added, there wasn’t enough recent data supporting or opposing those concerns.
“The reason for the study committee would be to gather more data,” Carter said, adding that he’s unsure yet if he supports the proposed moratorium. “I don’t want the government telling me what I can or cannot do with my land, and essentially that’s what we’ll be doing if we were to impose a moratorium.”
The proposed committee would include representatives from different state agencies as well as from the agricultural industry.
While Mississippi and the rest of the Southeast haven’t historically attracted many wind projects relative to other parts of the country, Tolbert said that new, taller turbine technology has increased the potential for such projects in the region.
“A moratorium would delay investment and send a chilling signal to companies looking at Mississippi for clean energy projects,” he said.
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