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Multimillion-dollar tax breaks approved for Plaquemines LNG, Louisiana Green Fuels

Summary

The Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry unanimously granted tax credits totaling millions of dollars for two huge industrial projects in Plaquemines and Caldwell parishes. Venture Global LNG obtained a payroll credit of $29.8 million over ten years for its $14.4 billion Plaquemines LNG plant in Plaquemines Parish. The Virginia-based liquefied natural gas exporter obtained the tax credit under the state's Quality Jobs program, which encourages businesses to create new, high-paying jobs. According to papers filed with Louisiana Economic Development, the state agency in charge of the state's corporate incentive programs, the board authorized an Industrial Tax Exemption Program contract for the LNG facility in 2016. According to LED estimates, the break was worth $83.5 million in the first year of the arrangement. Over a 10-year period, the new LNG terminal is estimated to generate 413 new direct jobs with a total payroll of $497 million, as well as 6,000 construction jobs. To the dismay of environmental justice activists, the project recently received preliminary clearance from government officials to increase its yearly LNG production from 24 million metric tons to 27.2 million. It is scheduled to go live in 2024.

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