§502. Declaration of energy emergency; purpose of Chapter
A.It is the determination of the legislature that existing and impending shortages of
natural gas and other fossil fuels caused by inadequate domestic production, environmental
constraints, impediments to the intrastate transportation of natural gas, and the unavailability
of imports sufficient to satisfy domestic demand have caused, and will cause curtailment of
vital public services, severe economic dislocations and hardships, including loss of jobs,
closing of factories and businesses, and reduction of crop planting and harvesting, and, thus,
there exists a serious threat to the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the state of
Louisiana creating a statewide energy emergency, which is part of a nationwide energy
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§502. Declaration of energy emergency; purpose of Chapter
A. It is the determination of the legislature that existing and impending shortages of
natural gas and other fossil fuels caused by inadequate domestic production, environmental
constraints, impediments to the intrastate transportation of natural gas, and the unavailability
of imports sufficient to satisfy domestic demand have caused, and will cause curtailment of
vital public services, severe economic dislocations and hardships, including loss of jobs,
closing of factories and businesses, and reduction of crop planting and harvesting, and, thus,
there exists a serious threat to the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the state of
Louisiana creating a statewide energy emergency, which is part of a nationwide energy
emergency. These conditions require that the state of Louisiana provide for an agency to
assume primary governmental responsibility for developing and enforcing emergency energy
shortage contingency plans; to implement and administer delegations of authority in this area
to the state by the federal government; for dealing with existing and anticipated dislocations,
shortages, distribution and transportation difficulties; to protect, conserve and replenish the
natural resources of the state, and to prohibit and prevent the waste, wasteful use and
wasteful utilization of natural gas, and to prevent the use of natural gas in such a manner and
in such quantities as to threaten the premature exhaustion, extinction and destruction of the
supply of natural gas in the state; to enforce the mandatory conservation, allocation,
rationing, and safe and efficient transportation of these hydrocarbons and provide for an
increase in available supplies of the state's energy resources, particularly the production, and
safe and efficient transportation and use of natural gas, utilizing wholly intrastate facilities,
in order to minimize the adverse effect of such shortages on the economy and industrial
capacity of the state. The state must insure that measures will be taken to meet these existing
emergencies and to conform as nearly as practical with national commitments and national
requirements governing the transportation, distribution, and use of energy resources, and
particularly to assure the best utilization for the benefit of the public of such natural gas as
remains within the control and direction of the state of Louisiana.
B. The purpose for which this Chapter is enacted is to protect and conserve the
natural energy resources of the state, and prevent the physical and economic waste, wasteful
use and wasteful utilization thereof, through the development and implementation of a
comprehensive energy policy for the state of Louisiana which will regulate the use, end-use,
production, transportation, conservation, sale and prices of the state's energy resources,
improve the available transportation facilities for movement of intrastate natural gas between
the different parts of the state, provide for the equitable distribution of energy supplies to the
residents and the commercial and industrial users of these energy supplies; and insure the
maintenance of the highest practical level of energy supplies commensurate with the general
health, safety, welfare and prosperity of the state.
C. This Chapter is enacted under the police power of the state, the residuum of the
state's power not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States
and the authority of the legislature under the Constitution of Louisiana, including Paragraphs
(C) and (D) of Section 1 of Article VI of the Constitution of Louisiana.
D. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, this Chapter shall not apply to
natural gas, not to exceed twenty five million cubic feet per day, owned or purchased by a
person at or near the field where produced and transported by the purchaser through his own
pipeline solely for his own consumption or to gas acquired, through an exchange of any
portion of such gas, solely for his own consumption; provided that such gas may be made
subject to the provisions of Part IV of this Chapter in cases where the secretary finds that an
extreme emergency exists impairing gas otherwise required for the priorities set forth in R.S.
30:572(1)(a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) which cannot be substantially otherwise provided for.
E. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, Parts IV, V, VI, and VII of this
Chapter and provisions of Part III relating to excess capacity shall not apply to synthetic gas
which is produced from coal, lignite, or petroleum coke for use and consumption solely
within the state of Louisiana, and the heat content of which synthetic gas does not exceed
800 BTUs per standard cubic foot. All other provisions of this Chapter, however, shall be
applicable to such gas.