While the oil and gas market has been virtually unthrottled by recent Executive Orders from the Trump administration and subsequent hard reverses in regulatory policy, others in Louisiana’s nascent “all things energy” space are taking a more tentative tone these days.
Much of the uncertainty is due to the intertwining of EOs and congressional legislation by the previous administration, making it difficult to determine the actual impacts of the most recent actions on a variety of renewable energy and decarbonization projects.
“Many of these projects received funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and they all have Justice40 and disadvantaged community requirements (as mandated by a Biden administration EO),” says Greg Upton, executive director of the LSU Center for Energy Studies.
The Justice40 Initiative ensures that at least 40% of the benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy goes to disadvantaged communities.
“However, in one of his first actions as president, Trump rescinded these community initiatives,” Upton says, “so no one really knows whether these projects will continue to be funded. On one hand, you’ve signed a contract with the federal government, but on the other hand, some of these community measures were not the intent of Congress when they appropriated the funding.”
There’s additional ambiguity around projects receiving 45Q for CCUS projects and 45V for clean hydrogen projects tax credits, as well as production tax credits for wind and solar, in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“No one really knows, but my reading of the tea leaves is that those will continue to be available because we have a history of production tax credits for wind and solar,” Upton says. “And there’s never been an instance, that I’m aware, where Congress passed a similar subsidy and later reduced the time frame in which it was initially passed.”
Of course, there’s little to no ambiguity around offshore oil and gas, since an expected increase in the number of federal offshore and land leases and a reduction in the industry’s regulatory burden will undoubtedly be beneficial to the sector.
“It’s more complicated for refining and chemicals,” Upton says. “Those are big export-oriented industries, so the talk of tariffs and trade restrictive policies internationally could negatively impact that sector. However, an expected increase in production could make them more competitive. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword.”
Mark Zappi, executive director of the UL Energy Institute of Louisiana, says it’s hard to imagine two presidential administrations with more starkly different approaches to energy. “The actual economics of everything seems to matter more to the current administration, whereas with the previous administration it was more ‘let’s ignore the numbers and move forward because we think it’s the right thing to do,’” Zappi says.
While he’s not opposed to federal and state incentives, Zappi says renewable energy sources work best when they’re economically sustainable on their own. “I’m a cheerleader for all sides—let’s continue to develop an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to alternative energy, but let’s also be cognizant of the economics so that we don’t outprice our jobs and our industries.
“But all too often, it’s all or nothing with every new administration,” he adds. “I believe we can have our cake and eat it, too. We need to continue to reduce emissions, but we also need to keep our feet on the ground in the process.”
A Precipitous Drop in Wind Speed
Perhaps no other energy sector has endured more regulatory whiplash than offshore wind. President Trump, as one of his first acts in January, froze offshore wind leases and permitting in federal waters and dealt a difficult blow to an already struggling industry.
In a brutally ironic twist, GNO Inc. hosted its annual Louisiana Wind Energy Week just a week after the Trump Executive Order. Wind Week brings together national and global partners who are interested in Louisiana and offshore wind energy opportunities.
In attendance were national industry associations, all three of the current offshore wind leaseholders in the Gulf—RWE (in federal waters), and Diamond Offshore Wind and Cajun Wind (both in state waters)—as well as Dustin Davidson, the deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources.
“Naturally, there was a lot of discussion about the Executive Order,” says Cam Poole, GNO Inc.’s energy and innovation manager. “There’s a lot to be interpreted and understood. Obviously, the leasing and permitting hold affects a number of projects, but for those projects that are past all the leasing and permitting milestones, they have the right to proceed with construction.
“According to RWE and DENR, they plan to keep trucking along,” Poole says. “We’re going to keep doing what we’d planned to do over the next four years, particularly because it doesn’t require much permitting authority to advance at this stage.
“That being said, given the probable impacts of the EO on the supply chain and overall industry growth, it would be incorrect to assume that because they have the permits and the leases that everything is on track for those projects.”
DENR also plans to continue executing its Louisiana’s Offshore Wind Map and expects research as part of the endeavor to be completed in 2026. Overseen by a DNER advisory committee, the map will provide guidance and recommendations on developing a sustainable offshore wind industry in Louisiana. It’s aimed at attracting offshore wind investment in local supply chains through effective procurement mechanisms, supporting local jobs and ensuring mitigation measures are in place to protect the natural environment.
Patrick Courreges, communications director at DENR, says many of the concerns outlined in the EO are already being addressed as part of the Wind Map initiative.
“The EO put a hold on new leases and permitting pending studies of impacts to navigation, marine life, bird flyways and environmental and economic concerns, which are all being looked into,” he says.
“This was always expected to be a slow burn anyway. The roadmap is supposed to be a two-year process, and we’re barely six months in. I think a lot of eyes are waiting to see what we come up with.”
Pushing Forward
Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, has been pushing for the development of an offshore wind complex at Port Fourchon for years—along with all other forms of energy—and he doesn’t plan to stop. The port has evolved into a testbed, of sorts, for innovation as it pursues investors in offshore wind, hydroelectric power, LNG, coastal restoration, and offshore platform fabrication and decommissioning.
“We’ve been defending the offshore oil and gas industry for years under the last administration; now we have to defend offshore wind,” Chiasson says. “The ‘all of the above’ approach to energy is still our strategy. It’s still what we believe our country should be doing … looking at all sources of energy and how we can help provide for different sources of energy.”
On Feb. 11, Chiasson testified to the House Committee on Natural Resources in Washington D.C. about the importance of offshore energy. Presumably, the information gathered during the meeting—dubbed “Restoring Energy Dominance: The Path to Unleashing Offshore Energy”—will be used to develop a new five-year lease plan for offshore oil and gas.
“I harped a lot in my testimony about consistency,” he says. “We just want to know what the plan is and be able to move that forward, and not have the rug pulled out from under our feet every few years.”
Later this year, Gulf Wind Technology expects to complete construction of the state’s first wind turbine at the port’s Coastal Wetlands Park. The 187-foot-tall turbine will collect data and potentially power the port’s nearby emergency operations building, as well as demonstrate and test various turbine technologies.
Once the turbine is operational, Chiasson hopes to showcase his port as a national leader in the servicing of offshore wind power. Given the pause in federal offshore leases, he plans to shift his focus to those leases already sold in state waters (Diamond Offshore Wind and Cajun Wind) and the sole lease in federal waters (RWE).
James Martin, CEO of Gulf Wind Technology in Avondale, remains passionate about the potential of the Gulf for offshore wind and plans to continue pressing forward with the Port Fourchon test turbine.
“There’s a lot of demand for power in the offshore market, with all the rigs and refining, so we’d love to see that market thrive,” he says. “In the meantime, we’re going to be working our turbine at Port Fourchon to test new technologies. Those plans are not going to change.”
Still, he admits that the federal lease and permitting freeze will have an undeniable impact on the overall offshore wind industry. “Of course it will be disruptive,” Martin says. “Having support for the market in terms of permitting and policy would have driven more volume, so it will have an undeniable impact on momentum in the market.”
He remains hopeful that there will be other opportunities coming out of the new administration. For example, international tariffs could bring more of the turbine manufacturing operations to the U.S., which would help service a thriving onshore wind market.
“There’s usually a silver lining for technology companies and people who develop turbines,” Martin says. “They use these tough times to develop and demonstrate the next generation of technology.”
Troubles for EV?
Louisiana’s fledgling EV battery materials market has its own worries since it owes much of its existence to more than a dozen incentives enacted through Congress and issued through the U.S. Department of Energy.
At present, there are about $1.3 billion in announced EV battery projects that have not yet pulled the trigger, many of which are heavily concentrated in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area. Federal monetary incentives have made it financially viable for owners to consider transporting mined materials from such faraway places as Australia, Mexico and Mozambique into the state to manufacture the EV battery components.
“If I didn’t have my check in hand, I would be nervous,” says Loren Scott, an economist with Loren C. Scott & Associates in Baton Rouge. “I think that market is probably in the target. When it comes to this particular issue, Louisiana is probably most at risk for losing some of these projects.”
There are economic variables handicapping the industry as well—sales of EV vehicles have been lackluster in recent months, a fact that has only been exacerbated by a Trump executive order revoking a Biden EV measure that would have ensured half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. would be electric by 2030.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the demand for EVs goes down this year and next, and the tariffs aren’t going to help,” he adds. “They’ll increase the price of all cars.”
Without government assistance, the return on investment for many of the projects will cease to be attractive. “Sometimes, these projects need the federal money to make the numbers work out. You’re just not going to do it, until you get more firm ground from which to make a decision,” Scott says.
“With so much uncertainty, I would expect many of these announced projects to wait until at least the summer to let the dust settle.”
Publicly, at least, many of the projects appear to be moving forward. Syrah Resources in Vidalia is already producing active anode material for the battery market and UBE Corp. broke ground in February on a dimethyl carbonate and ethyl methyl carbonate battery materials plant at Cornerstone Energy Park near New Orleans.
Another five announced projects “all seem to be moving,” Scott says. “Element 25 is now looking at a site in Baton Rouge, Capchem Technology in Ascension Parish is on schedule and expecting an FID in June, and Koura in St. Gabriel has a DOE grant but hasn’t broken ground just yet.”
A smaller project by Ucore in Rapides Parish recently announced a delay in their timeline, with the owner now expecting to complete their renovations in mid-2025 and open in 2026.
Utility-scale solar
On the bright side, utility-scale solar appears to be the least vulnerable of Louisiana’s renewable energy sources, given its economic viability even without federal assistance.
And while utility-scale solar projects do receive tax credits through the IRA, Terry Chambers, director of the Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy Center at ULL in Lafayette, is hopeful that they won’t be eliminated.
“They’re tax law, so they can’t be repealed by an executive order,” Chambers says. “Those tax credits have served as a major incentive for the installation of solar at the utility and residential scales, and they’re still available in the law.”
However, the EPA has temporarily frozen the distribution of money for its “Solar for All” program, funded under the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides grants and loans for low-income and disadvantaged communities to build out solar infrastructure.
“Through Louisiana’s incarnation of that—Solar for Y’all—the Baton Rouge Area Foundation has been managing the program as a green bank and administering those grants and loans for primarily residential and multi-family housing installations, as well as for community solar,” Chambers says. “The funding is currently under review, but it may still go forward after it’s completed.”
Politics aside, Chambers says utility-scale solar is currently the most practical renewable energy source in the industrial space as owners continue to pursue net-zero emissions goals.
“Even unsubsidized, the levelized cost of solar compared to other energy generation technologies is very favorable,” Chambers says. “Utility-scale PV (photovoltaic) solar ranges from $29 to $92 per MW hour, whereas gas-combined cycle plants range from $45 to $108 … so it’s actually cheaper than combined cycle. And it’s much cheaper than coal or nuclear.”
