Luncheon speaker: Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse will serve as the keynote speaker at two luncheons this week. On Tuesday, he’ll speak at noon at the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish luncheon at Café Américain. On Wednesday, the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge will host him at noon at Drusilla Seafood.
Pipeline pushback: Louisiana is poised to tighten restrictions on the use of eminent domain for CO2 capture pipelines, potentially curbing developers’ ability to seize private land for carbon dioxide transport and storage, reports Carbon Herald. Legislation recently passed by Louisiana lawmakers—Senate Bill 244—would limit eminent domain to carbon pipeline projects classified as “common carriers,” meaning they must serve the broader public interest, not just a single company. This provision would block most private developers from forcibly acquiring land unless their projects meet that standard. At press time, Gov. Jeff Landry had not yet signed the measure. Carbon Herald has the full story.
Consumer costs: President Donald Trump’s rollback of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has cost Americans at least $18 billion in higher fees and lost compensation, Reuters reports. A new analysis by the Student Borrower Protection Center and the Consumer Federation of America attributes the losses in part to the dismissal of 22 pending enforcement cases—including actions against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Capital One—linked to more than $3 billion in alleged consumer harm. The CFPB also scrapped or revised settlements with Toyota and a payments processor, erasing roughly $50 million in redress payments. Reuters has the full story.
