The Legislature of Louisiana hereby finds that:

(1)  The state of Louisiana and the nation are rapidly depleting their reserves of oil and natural gas upon which the United States as a whole is heavily dependent for its energy requirements.

(2)  States and the federal government are beginning to study the feasibility of alternative energy supplies to supplement the declining oil and gas reserves.

(3)  Preliminary studies by professional staffs at Louisiana universities and by private firms within the state indicate that Louisiana may have within its borders uniquely large reservoirs of superheated, highly pressurized water which may also be saturated with natural gas in solution.

(4)  These reservoirs can be a potential source of commercial quantities of energy in the form of steam, hot water, and natural gas.

(5)  Professional staffs at Louisiana State University have obtained a small grant from the federal Energy Research and Development Administration to begin studies to determine the location of commercial size reservoirs by utilizing the services of state geologists in the State Department of Conservation to examine and chart the massive numbers of well logs available.

(6)  Parallel research efforts should be instituted simultaneously with the above mentioned study to tap known reservoirs to determine pressures, temperatures, and extent of gas saturation as well as numerous other scientific experiments necessary to provide an adequate basis from which to draw conclusions.

(7)  Additionally, this potential energy resource opens a new area of legal consequences which must be examined and a determination made of the ramifications and effects of the development of this resource on private and public rights.

(8)  By Act 16 of the 1973 Extraordinary Session,¹ the Louisiana Legislature created the Louisiana Energy Commission and included in its duties the authorization to undertake or contract for studies and research regarding alternate fuel resources for the state; that the commissioner of conservation, by Act 16, is authorized to prepare all necessary studies on the sources of energy available to Louisiana and to conduct appropriate research in connection therewith; and that the State Department of Conservation is staffed and administratively capable of exercising this authority.

(9)  This Act is intended to provide the framework and guidelines for the state, through the State Department of Conservation, to begin a concerted effort to exploit this potential geothermal and geopressure energy resource.

Added by Acts 1975, No. 735, §1.

¹R.S. 30:681.