A push to fast-track environmental permits has put the proposed $4 billion Blue Point ammonia plant in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, on the edge of a mandated 45-day regulatory deadline.
Background
The Trump administration’s 45-day mandate applies to critical environmental reviews of the Blue Point ammonia project pending before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins declared the multi-agency push ensures critical infrastructure projects will move at ‘Trump speed’ to bypass bureaucratic delays.
Funding and Partnerships
The project is funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation’s $500 million FIELDS Program, which provides infrastructure grants ranging from $15 million to $150 million.
Illinois-based fertilizer producer CF Industries, the lead partner in the Ascension Parish project, will have the rights to 40% of the ammonia production, while JERA, Japan’s largest power provider, and Mitsui, a major Japanese industrial conglomerate, will get 35% and 25%, respectively.
Ann Rolfes, founding member of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group, contends that the rush to clear Blue Point’s permits primarily benefit foreign corporations.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
