The Advocate has published an editorial under the headline: Welcome new investment in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry.
This editorial supports the Mitsubishi Plant in Ascension Parish and the Exxon plant in Baton Rouge. Citing only financial reasons, they tout the increase in tax revenues, largely from high salaries (managers and/or workers) as they note that we as a state need to diversify – but not now.
They characterize those opposed by stating: “What’s not to like? In an era in which any association with fossil fuels is viewed with skepticism bordering on paranoia, a small number of activists blasted the plants.”
One of the opponents to these plants, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade noted: “We don’t want to be the epicenter of the world’s biggest chemical plants,” said Anne Rolfes of New Orleans, with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. “With the opportunity cost of these chemical plants, the health cost, Louisiana ought to be pivoting to something different.”
The paper later stated: “Officials can be swayed by companies but elected officeholders are ultimately accountable to voters, and we believe the broad support of these projects may suggest which of the two sides in the debate is out of touch with the communities in question.”
The editorial can be read on the newspaper’s website
See also our initial stand against the Mitsubishi plant
