Making the market tighter are other projects in the sector from Air Products and Chemicals, Dow Chemical and Huntsman Corp.
   Texas- based Huntsman announced in February 2006 that it had chosen the city of Geismar for its new "world- scale" maleic anhydride plant, which makes the building block for unsaturated polyester resins used in products raning from automotive

Sheet piling between three rows of "H" Piling in March in preparation for the rebar and cement to form the base of the new Category 4 levee wall. FEMA is helping local governments repair the 9th Ward Levee to Category 4 specification under its Public Assistance program to help prevent future levee failures. Marvin Nauman/FEMA photo

products to food additive formulations. Huntsman aims to start up the plant as early as the third quarter of 2008, following a fast- track implementation model that would initially seem to be at odds with the region's slow- track recovery. But the company already had a diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) manufacturing complex at the site, which supplies feedstock for maleic anhydride. (The company also is looking at the possibility of a huge MDI plant JV in China).
   "The Geismar site was chosen after evaluating six possible locations," said Tom Fisher, Huntsman vice president, at the February announcement. "We are confident that the Geismar site will provide the most attractive economics for the plant due to the feedstock availability and the ability to leverage off existing Huntsman infrastructure currently located at the Geismar site."
   The 100- million- lb. capacity of the new plant will complement the 240 million lbs. of capacity at the company's plant in Pensacola, Fla., as well as the 125 million lbs. at its 50- 50 joint venture in Moers, Germany.
   Dow continues to move forward with a cellulosics expansion in Plaquemine, La., part of a three- pronged growth plan for its water- soluble polymers business that also includes projects in Midland, Mich., and Slade, Germany. It's also just started production of latex at a plant in Hahnville, La., that is part of a $100- million expansion plan for that business. Approximately 30 new jobs will be created at the plant, sited near other Dow assets and thus affording some synergies.
   Work force concerns abound for all. But for now at least the pledge is there, if not the personnel. Asked if some parts of the Gulf Coast must simply be written off for further investment, Little says, "In the chemical industry, the cost of infrastructure is so great, you don't walk away. Plus you have to serve your customer base. To expand a facility is a lot more cost- effective than going greenfield somewhere else, so as long as we have those assets and that type of people, we're going to invest.
   "We've been very pleased with our assets and the people we've been able to attract in that area," Little continues, lauding the commitment and loyalty of DuPont's work force of 3,700 throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It's only fitting that the company continue to mirror that sense of responsibility:
   "We're there and we're going to be there," he says. "There's no doubt about that."