Louisiana Gulf Opportunity Zone Bond Approvals: Full Approval and Issuance History

The ability to issue tax-exempt Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds ended in 2011. Because the interest on the bonds is not taxed, the interest rates paid on these bonds is lower than would otherwise be the case.  This tabulation provides a full summary of the applications and issuance of bond capacity within the state of Louisiana.  Earth Track grouped the recipients by industry to see what portion of the total support benefited fossil fuels.  Including projects heavily in the fossil fuel area (power plants burning fossil fuels; fuel extraction, transport, or refining, and associated services; and chemical production heavily reliant on fossil fuel feedstocks), we found that 57% of total bond capacity issued went to the fossil fuel sector.  Including projects that benefited fossil fuels plus other sectors increased this total to 65%.  Two fossil fuel recipients received tax-exempt bonding capacity of $1billion each.  An additional write-up can be found in this blog post.

Earth Track welcomes additional information on specific projects to improve how they have been classified.