US Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) paid a visit to northeast Louisiana on Wednesday.
Cassidy served as the keynote speaker at the Monroe Chamber of Commerce Breakfast, where he briefed local elected officials on infrastructure and development in the area.
Among the audience were Mayors Staci Mitchell of West Monroe, Friday Ellis of Monroe, Gerald Brown of Richwood, Matt Talbot of Sterlington, Betty Alford-Olive of Bastrop, State Representatives Pat Moore (D) and Foy Gadberry (R), and Sen . Katrina Jackson (D).
During his speech, the senator highlighted the I-20 rail line between Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia, which will have stops in Shreveport, Bossier, Ruston and Monroe.
“Foy [Gadberry] got me thinking, why can’t we have an Amtrak line that runs through northern Louisiana? He put that nerve in my ear and that’s how we worked with Amtrak. “So now we’re probably about two years away from an Amtrak line that connects Atlanta to Dallas and Monroe and Ruston and Shreveport with stops,” Cassidy said. “You can live in Monroe but say you want to go to Dallas for a day,” Cassidy said. You only work on your computer and your iPad all the time. You’ll work on your iPad and your computer all the time, but you’ll live in Monroe. You’re going to live in West Monroe and that person in Dallas, they can just come over here.”
He touted economic growth in rural Caldwell Parish with the $5 million road to its port and the construction of a renewable diesel plant in the area.
“What will that mean for economic development in Colombia,” Cassidy said. “It changes the community. It will increase the tax base. It will add value to the property of those who own it. It will create jobs for those who don’t have jobs. It will create a future for the people.” the children who are children there now. This is fantastic.”
Visiting Dallas or Houston to meet with investors, Cassidy said they are eyeing bands in northern and southern Louisiana because of the state’s “perfect geology” for soil carbon fuel storage.
“When we were working on the bipartisan infrastructure law and my team was working with me, I actually thought, if you want to reduce carbon emissions, you have to go where the industry is emitting a lot of carbon and that we and you’ ‘We’re there arrived where there is geology and we have the geology. So if we all put our minds to it and work really hard at it, we’re going to make Louisiana do really well.”
Louisiana’s economy has $27 billion in investments planned and will continue to grow, Cassidy said.
“I can tell you about this $2 billion project,” Cassidy said. “This $4.5 billion project, but it’s all part of this energy transition, and it’s going to happen in the South. It will take place in the north and it will bring prosperity to our state that we have not seen in a long time.”
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