Solar Project on Monday Agenda

The Louisiana Commerce and Industry Board is meeting Monday morning to decide the fate of agricultural land in Morehouse Parish. The board is considering granting tax relief through the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) to a proposed solar plant, despite legislation written and passed by Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, Senator Bret Allain and Senator Beth Mizell. That legislation requested the Department of Economic Development put a one-year moratorium on the use of ITEP by the solar industry.

The proposed solar project would create NO permanent jobs and only a handful of short term construction jobs. This project may not directly affect you right now, but it could in the future. Other solar projects proposed on agricultural land could seek tax relief through ITEP and site this use as reason for approval. The meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 28, 2021 in the LaBelle Room of the LaSalle Building, 617 North 3rd Street, Baton Rouge, La.

Please make every effort to make your voice heard on this issue. If you cannot make the trip to Baton Rouge on such short notice, please call your friends who can make it to the meeting to express your concerns. Louisiana Farm Bureau will have a representative at that meeting to express the concerns and policies of the 140,000 members who make up the state’s largest general farm organization.