It’s a hundred-billion-dollar economic development win, which is far and away the greatest capital investment Louisiana has ever seen. But yesterday’s announcement by SpaceX that it was building Starbase Louisiana, a rocket launch facility which will ultimately have no less than a dozen launch pads capable of more than 30 rocket launches per day, was just the latest in a massive string of economic development wins.

Totaling more than $250 billion, and probably closer to $300 billion, in capital investment in the state.

Before the SpaceX announcement, there was the $50 billion Meta Hyperion data center project in Richland Parish, in the northeast corner of the state. Or the $18 billion Amazon data center project in the Shreveport area. Or the $18 billion Venture Global liquid natural gas export facility. In fact, here’s a list of all the economic development wins of greater than $250 million which have been announced since Jan. 8, 2024, when Jeff Landry was inaugurated as governor…

SpaceX (Vermilion Parish): $100 billion
Meta AI Data Center (Richland Parish): $50+ billion
Amazon/AWS Data Centers (Caddo/Bossier): $18 billion
Venture Global LNG (Plaquemines): $18 billion (expansion of pre-existing facility)
Woodside Louisiana LNG (Calcasieu): $17.5 billion
Commonwealth LNG (Cameron): $13 billion
Hut 8 AI Data Center (West Feliciana) $10 billion
Hyundai Steel Mill (Ascension): $5.8 billion
CF Industries/JERA/Mitsui Ammonia Plant (Ascension): $4 billion
Applied Digital AI Data Center (Rapides): $3.6 billion
Shintech (Iberville): $3.4 billion (expansion)
Lake Charles Methanol (Calcasieu): $3.24 billion
ElementUSA Critical Minerals  (St. John): $850 million
Heirloom Carbon Capture  (Northwest Louisiana): $475 million
Linde Industrial Gas Complex (Ascension): $400+ million
Air Liquide Industrial Gas Project (St. James): $350+ million
Saronic Autonomous Shipyard (St. Mary) $300 million (expansion)
Aclara Rare Earth Processing Plant (Calcasieu): $277 million

We’re told there are a whole lot more industrial projects, data centers and corporate facilities coming.

Three years ago, nothing was happening in Louisiana. The state was in the throes of a pronounced net outmigration not just of people but of jobs and specifically of capital – CenturyLink pulled out of Monroe, Smoothie King pulled out of Metairie, and so on.

The outmigration reversed last year. And now Louisiana’s economy is on the verge of heating up in a major way.

What’s especially interesting about that list of economic development wins is that it’s a pretty diverse set of projects. You have aerospace with SpaceX, you have data centers, you have LNG export terminals, you’ve got a steel mill, petrochemical facilities, a shipyard, a rare earth plant… the state’s economic recovery isn’t built on just one industry.

Of course, what ties all of these together is the industry Louisiana’s been known for going back a century – namely, oil and gas.

SpaceX is able to put up a dozen launch pads at that Pecan Island site and plan two or three dozen launches a day because they can make their own rocket fuel on site. And they can do that because there are some pretty vast natural gas deposits sitting right offshore in the Gulf – just waiting to be piped into SpaceX’s facility. The rockets will be powered by a mix of liquid methane and liquid oxygen – having the ability to manufacture that fuel at Starbase Louisiana and not have to transport it from elsewhere is a very, very big deal.

Pay attention also to the announcement that SpaceX is going to build a seaport on site. While that’s going to be for things like rocket parts being barged in from elsewhere, the demand it will create for marine services is very likely to juice shipbuilding and other marine manufacturing across coastal Louisiana, and that’s likely going to really energize places like Houma and Morgan City and even New Orleans where there’s a maritime sector. It’s not so much that everybody is going to get SpaceX contracts; it’s that around the world they’re going to take note of how much of a marine services sector Louisiana has – it’s been around to service the oil and gas sector for decades – and how capable it is.

You might very well see a major shipbuilder set up shop in Louisiana. Or you might see Louisiana shipbuilders start to expand their operations based on contracts with private sector firms locating here – whether because they’re doing business with SpaceX or because Louisiana makes sense to them for a different reason.

The common mentality around here, of course, is “Oh, our politicians will screw this up, though. They always do.”

Historically, that isn’t wrong. But it might not apply to the current situation, though.

The thing about SpaceX, for example, is that Elon Musk is bigger than Louisiana’s politicians. And SpaceX is certainly bigger than Louisiana’s old way of doing business.

Somebody plunks down $100 billion to invest in this state, and the people who would bog down everything else somebody might want to do will suddenly find themselves unable to use those old tricks. SpaceX is too big for that. They’ll just steamroll the good-ole-boy opposition.

You’ll see that with the people who’ll complain about the effects of Starbase on crabbing and duck hunting around Pecan Island. Ten thousand high-paying jobs, which probably mushrooms to a good deal more than that when Starbase’s full effect as an economic driver begins to materialize, just washes all of that away.

Which changes the culture.

I’m reminded of a sports story. When Nick Saban came to LSU back in December of 1999, he was told by a bunch of LSU’s football boosters and longtime stakeholders that he couldn’t do things the way he was used to, because there was a certain culture in Baton Rouge and around the program that Saban had to fit into. His reaction was to scoff at that, and Saban set about showing the old-timers that they didn’t know what they were talking about. Saban completely turned over the program and won the SEC in his second year and a national title in his fourth, and he set the stage for the best two-decade run in program history.

You’re going to get that in business with these big additions and new blood coming in.

Will that mean things will be different? Yes. Some of Louisiana’s cultural quirks are likely to be smoothed over as the new arrivals these big projects attract begin to make their mark on the state.

That’s a healthy thing. Assuming we’re not suddenly awash in H-1B visaholders doing all of these new jobs. But of course, at $103,000 apiece, the fee the Trump administration has now imposed on the H-1B applicants, that’s less of a problem for Louisiana’s rise than it has been in other states previously. Our new arrivals will generally be Americans. And they’ll assimilate into the cooler parts of Louisiana culture.

Hopefully not the worst parts.

This is a new era for the state, and its best opportunity to fully come  into its own since Iberville and Bienville carved New Orleans out of the swamps astride the Mississippi River’s lower delta. People don’t quite see how big a deal this  economic boom is yet. But they will.