As new emerging energy projects are proposed across the Southeast, local leaders are being asked to make quick decisions about technologies they often have very little familiarity with.
A new LSU-affiliated initiative aims to close that knowledge gap.
The Southeast Community Energy Futures Academy, or SCEFA, is a one-year pilot program aimed at equipping local leaders with the scientific, technological and regulatory know-how necessary to engage more thoughtfully in conversations about emerging energy projects—from carbon capture facilities to solar farms—and what they might mean for their communities.
“The overall goal is to bring to bear new scientific and technological information from universities to begin to address informational needs of host communities in the Southeast where new energy projects involving potentially unfamiliar technologies will be deployed,” says Margaret Reams, an LSU environmental sciences professor helping to spearhead the project.
The program is administered through Georgia Tech and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Its scope encompasses Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with LSU serving as Louisiana’s key partner.
Emerging energy projects are advancing rapidly across Louisiana and neighboring states, but the technical details of those projects—how these systems work, what risks they carry and how they are regulated—are inherently complex.
“These are not everyday topics,” Reams tells Daily Report. “We don’t have widespread understanding.”
The program will see researchers, technologists and community leaders collaborate both virtually and in person over the course of the year. The first in-person workshop held at LSU took place in January.
In Louisiana, the tangible deliverable will be a community resource guide that will be distributed both online and in print. The guide, expected in September, will explain emerging energy technologies in plain language while also outlining how the relevant permitting and regulatory systems work and how citizens can have their voices heard.
For Reams, the mission is straightforward. Energy demand is rising, and communities will confront more and more proposals aimed at managing carbon while meeting that demand in the years ahead. SCEFA’s goal is clarity, not advocacy for any specific technology.
Though the program is structured as a one-year pilot, Reams expects the work to continue beyond that initial term.
“If this goes well,” she says, “we expect that there would be more funding either from foundations or from the Department of Energy.”
The program arrives at a time when emerging energy projects—especially carbon capture projects—are facing mounting resistance in Louisiana, from opposition at public hearings to efforts at the governor’s office to tighten oversight.
