Is the MS River Delta Region the next manufacturing engine of the country?

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That doesn't mean good things in the Delta aren't being accomplished. There are. And with this massive manufacturing surge the American South is experiencing, the next few years may play out very well for one of the South's most strapped areas.

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed nine decades ago, the American South was the nation's biggest economic problem. Many of his policies and initiatives associated with the New Deal -- the Tennessee Valley Authority comes to mind first when it comes to the Delta region -- helped solve the issue of overwhelming poverty in the South.

However, the Delta remains the poorest region of the fourth-largest economy in the world, which is the American South. If anything, parts of the Mississippi River Delta have gone backward economically over the past 100 years. But there are many areas in the Delta that are thriving like never before.

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The Lower Delta, which we will define as the 56 counties in Louisiana, the southern half of the 47 counties in Mississippi and all of the 20 counties in Alabama that are in the Delta Regional Authority's (DRA) footprint, make up one of the largest industrial zones in the world. And because of the abundance of cheap natural gas, the region is growing every day.

Currently there are approximately $90 billion in industrial projects either announced or under construction in Louisiana, and almost all of that activity is occurring in the Delta in two different areas. The 70-mile New Orleans to Baton Rouge river corridor is experiencing an industrial revolution not seen in its history, as is the Southwest Louisiana region anchored by Lake Charles.

In fact, here is proof that the industrial revolution in the American South as well as in the entire U.S. is centered on that 70-mile corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and in Southwest Louisiana. Of the 100-largest privately held projects based on capital investment announced each year over the past 10 years in the South, the New Orleans region is No. 1 with 55 projects, Baton Rouge is No. 2 with 54 and Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana rank No. 5 with 24. Houston, which is not part of the Delta, is in third place with 36 and Dallas-Fort Worth is fourth with 25 of the 1,000-largest capital investments announced in the South over the last 10 years.

On a broader scale, of the 100-largest capital investments announced each year in the South over the last 10 years, 212 of the 1,000 came from the eight-state Mississippi River Delta region. That is an astounding total considering population in the Delta region (approximately 10 million residents) accounts for less than 9 percent of the South's total population of 115.7 million.

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In Northern Louisiana, the cost of doing business is one of the lowest in the U.S. In fact, Forbes named North Louisiana the most competitive place to do business in the U.S. and KPMG Competitive Alternatives recognized the region as the No. 1 most cost competitive area in North America in 2008 and 2010.

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Energy providers have lit up the Delta region with some of the lowest cost power for large manufacturers in North America. Fact is, power generation in the Delta is not only some of the least expensive in the U.S.; it is also some of the most reliable in the country.

The power to manufacturers in the Delta provided by the Cooperatives in Arkansas is hard to beat when it comes to costs. We all know about TVA's incredible advantages for large and small manufacturers when it comes to incentives and costs, and others such as Alabama Power and Entergy run some of the largest electric loads in the nation at massive manufacturing facilities in the Delta, including steel, petrochemical, automotive and food processing facilities.

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