BATON ROUGE, La. (UrbanCast: 6/30/2026) — Air Products announced Tuesday that it will not move forward with its proposed $4.5 billion Louisiana Clean Energy Complex in Ascension Parish.
The company said it decided not to proceed because the project’s expected financial returns did not meet its investment criteria.
“Today’s announcement that Air Products will not move forward with the LCEC is based on expected financial returns not meeting stringent return criteria,” the company said.
The Louisiana Clean Energy Complex was announced in October 2021 during the administration of former Gov. John Bel Edwards. The proposal called for a blue hydrogen manufacturing complex supported by carbon capture technology.
Air Products said it remains committed to Louisiana, where it operates 18 industrial gas facilities and the world’s largest hydrogen pipeline network along the Gulf Coast.
The company expects to record pre-tax charges of up to $2.9 billion during its fiscal third quarter. Those charges primarily relate to writing down assets and ending contractual commitments tied to the Louisiana project.
Separately, Air Products announced it will discontinue a zero-carbon liquid hydrogen facility in Arizona and several smaller clean energy projects. The company cited challenging commercial conditions, project-specific economic factors, and slower-than-expected growth in certain hydrogen markets.
Air Products also said it is finalizing a marketing and distribution agreement with Yara International for renewable ammonia produced by the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project in Saudi Arabia. The company said that agreement is unrelated to its decision on the Louisiana project.
The announcement means another proposed carbon capture project in Louisiana will not move forward. Air Products attributed its decision to the project’s expected financial returns.
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