John H. Little, DuPont

   The Marathon project is one of three major projects in St. John the Baptist Parish, on the northwest outskirts of New Orleans. The others are the $100- million sugar refinery project from Cargill Louisiana Sugar Cane Products Inc. in Reserve (see our March 2006 issue) and a $50- million project at DuPont's Performance Elastomers operation at its Ponchartrain works in LaPlace, where construction is under way to support a synthetic rubber expansion. Project planning was well under way before the 2005 hurricanes (girded by U.S. tariffs on less expensive synthetic rubber imports from Japan) and involves the movement of neoprene manufacturing capacity from the "Rubbertown" district of Louisville, Ky.
   The facility fared better in the hurricanes than the company's Mississippi facilities in Delisle and Pascagoula, where electrical systems suffered from the storm surge. At one facility, a 20- ft. (6- m.) wall had been designed with the 100- year hurricane Camille in mind – it turned out to be about 10 ft. (3 m.) too low.
   Little says the GO Zone incentives have a few measurable benefits for DuPont projects, "but some are meant for smaller companies and individuals. The job retention credit and the acceleration of depreciation – we're not sure what that's going to do for us. It will have a bigger impact on 2006 returns than 2005. Those are the two that are applicable to our size of facility."
   Little says there was some discussion among the mission participants about ways to improve the GO Zone incentives, and Commerce officials pledged they were working on it.
   Given the volume of reconstruction, a more crucial set of incentives would be focused on attracting the necessary work force and skills base.
   "We're working with a business roundtable in Louisiana on work force development," says Little. "The real issue is 'How do you get enough help?' "
   While the LaPlace project will mean very few new permanent workers at the 215- employee plant, approximately 150 construction workers were expected to be hired for the project.
   "What we're looking at is how we fund, get training and development in for those skills that we need," says Little. "Our CEO Chad Holliday is one of the sponsors of that effort. I talked with Dow and some of the other reps about making sure we support that effort. It's kind of like the perfect storm – right now a lot of the oil and gas industry has a lot of money to invest in their assets, then you have the devastation. Where are you going to find the people? … The Secretary was trying to spur some creativity and innovative approaches to how people could make some money and meet the needs of the area."
   One of those areas of both need and opportunity is the homebuilding industry. Little says he was looking at opportunities for DuPont products like Tyvek, Corian, Zodiac and Century glass. But the conversation always returned to work force.
   "The market's tight, so you see some of the schedules slipping in terms of getting resources," he says. "We have to do a better job of promoting the industry in terms of the trades and crafts. They're not going to do it with the current people – they're going to have to have more."