Tulane's Eric Smith speaks Wednesday. Photo: Heather McClelland on behalf of Axios
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana is better positioned than many other states to deal with energy challenges, but President Trump's tariffs remain a worry.
Why it matters: The Pelican State has some $60 billion in planned projects ranging from additional LNG export capabilities to producing low-carbon steel.
Driving the news: Trump's recent tariffs on steel and aluminum complicate those plans, said Eric Smith, associate director of Tulane University's Energy Institute, at an Axios event Wednesday on the state's economy.
- "Our biggest suppliers of things like steel and aluminum are countries like Canada and Mexico, Brazil and Korea, who's a big customer of ours," Smith said. "All of those products have just become less competitive on the world market. So that's a threat."
- Rick Tallant, Shell's executive vice president of supply chain, contracting and procurement, said of tariffs and supply chains: "The volatility that we've seen over the last few years, I think, is beyond what most people are used to."
Zoom in: Another concern for Louisiana, Smith said, is the Trump administration restricting exports of natural gas liquids such as ethane and butane.
- "We'd like to be able to ship these things to the tune of a couple of million barrels a day around the world," Smith said.
- "We're not going to be able to do that if we have licensing requirements that have never existed before, and if we have prohibitions on shipping them to China."
Speakers at the Axios event said they remain bullish on Louisiana's long-term energy outlook, given its workforce, community support and other advantages.
- "Louisiana, I think, is a great central location for the new energy of the future," Tallant said.
