ST. JAMES PARISH - While framed as a goodwill giveaway to the parish, the Community Benefit Agreement is really an enormous tax cut for DG Fuels. St. James Parish only received $60,000 without strings attached. Many of the other benefits are contingent on DG Fuels receiving all permits, approvals, etc. that DG Fuels decides are “necessary, desirable, or advisable”. This easily includes the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP). The power to approve an ITEP exemption lies with the parish. And the CBA holds the parish’s approval of a multimillion dollar ITEP exemption in exchange for only 18 million dollars in enforceable benefits to the parish. If DG Fuels seeks a standard 80% ITEP exemption, the parish would miss out on nearly $550 million in taxes over ten years. In other words, DG Fuels is proposing to pay just 3% of the taxes it would rightfully owe in exchange for an 80% tax cut. If DG Fuels paid its fair share of taxes like small business owners do, it would pay out $230 million to schools and more than $130 million to law enforcement through 2034.

The proposed DG Fuels site would impact the Moonshine and Baytree communities. Residents would be surrounded by a facility that will emit unknown chemicals, noises, and smells. DG Fuels has not disclosed what pollutants its plant will emit, despite repeated requests from RISE St. James Louisiana. As RISE’s Founder and Executive Director Sharon Lavigne said at the St. James Parish Council meeting to approve the Community Benefit Agreement, “Without knowing how our health will be impacted, how can we make the decision to support a huge project like DG Fuels?” DG Fuels is offering a one-time payment of $5 million dollars, about $20,000 per property, in these two neighborhoods. But that’s per property- not per owner. Family property with many owners will see that $20,000 split many ways. People who rent will get nothing.

$5 million dollars is a drop in the bucket for DG Fuels. Assuming a price per gallon of $8 for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and DG Fuels’ claims that its plant would produce 125 million gallons of SAF per year, that’s equivalent to the sales of just two days’ worth of production. But $20,000 only amounts to a fifth of the average property value in these neighborhoods. Two residents described these payments as “a slap in the face”; not nearly enough money to compensate for disturbing the quiet family-oriented place they call home.

Although DG Fuels will use bagasse, the pulp from sugar production, as a raw material instead of fossil fuels, its biofuel will still emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when burned during air travel. Additionally, the biofuel will be blended into traditional, fossil fuel based jet fuel, thus perpetuating fossil fuel production. The sugarcane bagasse is already being used by innovative companies for products like single-use, biodegradable packaging, paper, and even furniture, replacing the need for plastics or deforestation. With half of the world’s air travel under 500 miles, we should be prioritizing zero emission rail infrastructure and electric planes instead of greenwashing traditional air travel with a biofuel glowup.