Eric Connerly Data News Weekly Contributor
On August 6, 2024: Greenfield Louisiana, LLC, an agricultural infrastructure company, has announced it is ceasing plans for a proposed $800 million grain export facility in Wallace, LA.
When it first filed permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2021, the Wallace Grain Export Facility was expected to drive transformative social and economic benefits to the local community and to be a key link in connecting American farmers along the entire Mississippi River to global markets. The facility would have been the first new grain export hub built in the U.S. in decades and the most advanced ever developed, with an annual throughput capacity of 11 million tons. It was projected to create more than 1,000 construction-related jobs and more than 300 permanent jobs for the nearby community, as well as generate approximately $300 million in tax revenue for the state.
Despite usually approving similar projects in the region in six months’ time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has continued to modify and extend the review process for the Wallace Grain Export Facility, which filed for permits nearly three years ago. Last week, the Corps pushed back the timeline it needed to reach a decision on the project by a further six months to March 2025—the fifth such delay in the last 18 months—reversing recent commitments to resolve the application expeditiously.
Lynda Van Davis, Esq., Counsel and Head of External Affairs for Greenfield, made the following statement:
“Today is a sad day for the people of Wallace and for all Louisianans. This is a blow to farmers up and down the Mississippi, to young people hoping for meaningful jobs in the community where they grew up, and to local businesses across the West Bank hoping for economic development. As a descendent of the area, I’m angry that a handful of special interest groups – many of which are out-of-state NGOs – have succeeded in denying the future generations of St. John the opportunity they deserve.
“Time kills all projects and, sadly, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chose to repeatedly delay this project by catering to these special interest groups when it should have been listening to local voices from our community.
“Today, we are regrettably no closer to an answer in the Corps’ review process than we were when we filed permits three years ago. The repeated delays and goalpost moving we have faced have finally become untenable, and as a result, our local communities lost.
“We have to ask ourselves: if a national company designs a 21st-Century export facility, promising to hire locals first can’t break ground in Louisiana – who can? The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued Greenfield a ‘minor source’ air permit by in August 2020–the very same environmental impact as a hospital.
Why has Greenfield’s project been held captive for three years?
“This was a painful decision. We did everything in our power to keep this project on track because we believe in this community. We are so deeply grateful to the people of Wallace and the support they have shown us at every stage of this process. We hope there are opportunities to collaborate in the future to bring change to the region.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry released a statement regarding the matter and how it has a negative impact on those who were looking forward to well-paying jobs coming into the parish.
“This grain facility would have been environmentally sound and brought hundreds of high-paying jobs to St. John Parish. After years of delay—it’s despicable that the Corps of Engineers had additional delays with this project—choosing to adhere to special interest groups and wealthy plantation owners instead of hardworking Louisianans. Louisiana is ready to move past our days of listening to plantation owners, but it seems our federal government is not,” said Governor Landry.
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