Things are looking up in Louisiana. Having lagged behind some of its prospering Southern neighbors, the Pelican State is coming off a year of accumulated capital investments totaling some $25.7 billion, with all manner of billion-dollar projects waiting in the wings.
Down river from New Orleans, the $2 billion Louisiana International Terminal is a play to position Louisiana as the gateway to the nation’s midsection. In nearby Plaquemines Parish, Venture Global’s $21.4 billion LNG complex — designed to serve voracious global markets — is the largest privately financed energy investment in Louisiana history. They’re just two of numerous port and energy projects that bode well for Louisiana’s future.
Louisiana’s politics are in transition, its voters’ predilection for ping-ponging between the two political parties having held true last November. Republican Jeff Landry — succeeding Democrat John Bel Edwards — is pledging a whole new approach to economic development. To see it through, Landry tapped Susan Bonnett Bourgeois to lead Louisiana Economic Development (LED), the state agency dedicated to creating new workforce opportunities. A veteran of the private sector, Bourgeois spoke at length with Site Selection about Louisiana’s new direction. Here are five things we learned during the hour-long conversation on May 23.
New Orleans
Photo: Getty Images
A planned 900-acre container terminal south of New Orleans.
Image courtesy of APM Terminals
1Susan Bourgeois is a “playa.” She’s candid about the challenges facing Louisiana, yet confident they can be met. Having most recently served in the philanthropic sector, Bourgeois held several positions under Republican Governor Mike Foster in the 1990s and later founded a successful consulting group. She was nearing retirement, she told Site Selection, when the call from Governor Landry came.
“… sometimes our politics are a great deal of what’s holding us back.”
— Susan Bourgeois, Secretary, Louisiana Dept. of Economic Development
Susan Bourgeois: I have some politics in my background, but not traditional economic development in the practitioner sense. Ironically, that is exactly why I’m in the seat I’m in today. When Governor Landry got elected, he had a broad philosophical commitment to the fact that some of Louisiana’s embedded structures, systems and policies — and sometimes our politics — are a great deal of what’s holding us back from the success that many other Southern states are enjoying, and he committed immediately to blowing up those systems. It’s a very different philosophical approach to economic development and how our state and our department work to grow business in Louisiana.
The State Capitol in Baton Rouge
Photo: Getty Images
The challenge that was the impetus for me accepting the job is that for a very long time in Louisiana we have accepted a misperception that our children have to choose between home and family versus economic and career opportunity. We’ve wrung our hands and accepted that as if it’s our lot in life. Well, I have 20-somethings, and I’m not willing to accept it. And I feel like we in state government are the only ones who have the opportunity to change it. So, that was the fuel that got me to say, ‘Sure, I’ll forego yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays and come in and do this job.’ It’s been about 100 days since I landed here, and it has been lightning speed, hair-on-fire ever since.
2“Blowing it up” is a process. It started with identifying successful economic development models pioneered in other states. Upending the culture at LED became a key component, as did statutory changes underpinning the agency’s mission. Bourgeois happened to speak with Site Selection just hours after the Louisiana House approved the “Positioning Louisiana to Win Bill,” which codifies some of those changes.
Bourgeois: We looked at best practices around the country, particularly with our Southern states that have some similarities to us, to identify what their systems look like and why they’re seeing more job growth success than we are. We looked at those states and we took the common threads. So, the bill aligns us closer to a South Carolina model. We also looked at the Virginia model, and we all look enviably at the Ohio model with their aggressive funding stream.
“Number one is having a private sector voice and vision attached to our economic development plans and strategy.”
— Susan Bourgeois, Secretary, Louisiana Dept. of Economic Development
We’re building an organization that can be reflective of and responsive to the private sector by breaking down the bureaucratic barriers that exist inside government to allow us to respond at the speed of business instead of the speed of government. Number one is having a private sector voice and vision attached to our economic development plans and strategy. In Louisiana, we have a very strong chief executive and the governor’s politics have historically determined what the strategy of economic development was — which is maybe not in the best practices playbook. Solving that was critical, which is why our bill creates a way for the private sector to be involved in determining the strategy that is going to transcend gubernatorial administrations.
Our bill creates an oversight, guidance and policy board for our department made of private sector leaders representing the sectors that have built the economy of Louisiana. Their greatest charge is to create a strategic plan that is both acute and immediate. That is happening as we speak.
3Louisiana has unique assets that owe to its geography, legacy industries and culture. They translate well to emerging trends and industries.
Bourgeois: We have a really robust river system that offers new opportunities in the agricultural sector and gives us access to the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and therefore access to the world. We have two major east-west Interstates and two north-south Interstates running through our state and tremendous transportation infrastructure. Our incentives are as good as anywhere in the country. We have a pro-business climate and a pro-business governor who wants to make sure we make it easy for business and industry to succeed in Louisiana.
Every state in this country has a workforce challenge, right? But what we have in Louisiana is culture where multiple generations of the same family have worked in the same industry or a one-off of that industry. So, there’s a work ethic and a commitment to those fields that is really cultural and it’s identifiable. You can talk to CEOs and leaders in industry who have either moved or expanded businesses here. They’ll say this workforce is different, and that’s a tremendous, tremendous tool for us when everywhere in the country is facing such challenges in that space.
4Emerging energy projects represent a potential Louisiana bonanza: clean ammonia, green hydrogen, solar manufacturing, EV batteries. Louisiana is absorbing across-the-board investments in new and renewable energy technologies.
Bourgeois: In the 100-plus days I have been in this job, I would say 99% — and it might even be pushing closer to 100% — of the projects that have come across my desk have involved some component of the energy evolution and what is happening with the way we are reinventing U.S. energy. There is no state in this country better positioned than Louisiana is to capitalize on the global pressure — not domestic pressure — the global pressure for doing energy differently. We have the legacy infrastructure, and we have the legacy workforce. We have the pro-business climate, the land and the grid capacity. And we have the ingenuity. Our position is to optimize Louisiana’s legacy industries so that they can lead in the future as they have in the past. In the ’70s we were a leader in the petrochemical and energy space, and we sort of let that go. Our infrastructure and our processes and our people are positioning us to win heavily in that again.
“There is no state better positioned than Louisiana is to capitalize on the global pressure … for doing energy differently.”
— Susan Bourgeois, Secretary, Louisiana Dept. of Economic Development
I think symbiosis is t
he perfect word there. Our legacy energy industries have other entities co-locating and doing joint ventures with them because their methane byproduct is actually a feedstock now for clean processes. At the end of the day, Louisiana has embraced an all-of-the above energy mentality. No one in this administration is going to stand up and tell you that we are not an oil and gas state, yet there are many, many, many other technologies and processes and opportunities that can be and are being embraced by those sectors to just add to it.
5Liquefied natural gas production and exports are booming and set to grow further. The demand for LNG, which had risen steadily, began to skyrocket in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Louisiana already boasts three of the nation’s seven LNG export terminals, with more facilities planned. Not even the Biden Administration’s recent pause on approving new LNG export terminals is slowing down the investment surge, and Bourgeois views the moratorium as temporary and soon to be resolved.
Bourgeois: I would argue that it’s hung up because of politics. You know, good or bad. It was a federal decision from the Biden administration. These projects are ongoing and what we’re hearing is that right around November we will be back into the business of permitting future LNG processes because the world needs it. This isn’t being driven by domestic policy but the reality of the world that we’re living in. Goldman Sachs has identified that by 2032 about $2.9 trillion will be spent on the reinvention of U.S. energy. Louisiana won’t forego that opportunity. We will not. And we think Louisiana is really going to be surprising some people.
