It's likely going to another southern state (Tennessee)....why isn't Louisiana actively pursuing this?

A battery plant employs a lot of people and doesn't emit very much air pollution. There's likely a need for rail or river links and access to a lot of blue collar workers that are familiar with working in an industrial facility.

Why isn't southern Louisiana on the map for these kinds of things? I know we'll never get Amazon's headquarters or many white collar jobs until the education system improves, but industrial investments are usually not a huge problem for south Louisiana.

quote:

GM Looking to Build Second Battery Factory in U.S.

Wall Street Journal

General Motors Co. GM +0.15% is looking to build a second battery factory in the U.S. with joint-venture partner LG Chem Ltd. 051910 -0.57% , the latest move in the Detroit auto maker’s efforts to expand its investment in electric vehicles.

A GM spokesman confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the companies are exploring building a second battery-cell plant and said a decision could come in the first half of this year.

GM and LG are close to completing a decision to locate the plant in Tennessee, said people familiar with the matter. A final selection hasn’t yet been made, the people said.

Already, the two companies are building a $2.3 billion battery plant in northeast Ohio that is expected to open next year and eventually supply enough batteries to power hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually. The new plant is likely to be a similar-size investment, some of the people said.

GM, the nation’s largest auto maker, has set ambitious targets for converting its global lineup to electric vehicles, revealing its aim earlier this year to phase out gas-engine models from its showrooms by 2035.

The rush by GM and other global car companies to sell more plug-in models has stoked concerns among auto executives and analysts over future battery shortages and has led some auto manufacturers to get in the business of making their own battery cells, often in joint ventures with big battery makers.

quote:
GM is investing $27 billion in electric and driverless cars through mid-decade, among the industry’s most aggressive bets. Unlike some rivals, GM is using in-house battery technology, branded Ultium, which company executives say will lower battery costs by nearly 40% on new plug-in vehicles that begin to roll out over the next year compared with those it sells today.

It is also supplying the technology to Honda Motor Co. to develop new electric models, and GM is looking for more such deals, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said last week.

Ms. Barra is counting on 30 new battery-powered GM models globally by 2025—two-thirds of which are slated for North America—to deliver profit growth

GM is going to be building batteries and the EV chassis for all of their EVs, + Honda and Acura. They'd be a pretty solid choice to invest given that they will likely be building these batteries and EV parts for a bunch of carmakers.

It's frustrating that Louisiana isn't really trying to get this. Unlike plastic, chemical, or oil/gas related facilities....these plants don't usually contribute to a lot of air pollution, which is of growing concern in Ascension and St James parishes.

This post was edited on 3/4/21 at 11:02 am