Energy and Fried Fish Generate New Businesses and Real Estate Demand

By: jsl_dev_admin | October 9, 2025

Our region’s growing reputation as an energy-centric, powerhouse of an economy just got another boost.

AtmosClear BR has selected ExxonMobil to provide carbon transportation and storage services for its biomass energy with carbon capture project at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge.

The new facility will generate clean energy from biomass while capturing and storing up to 680,000 metric tons of biogenic CO2 annually, with additional volumes. ExxonMobil’s carbon capture and storage system – including Class V1 wells, existing pipelines and advanced monitoring, will ensure permanent sequestration.

The project will deliver carbon dioxide removal credits for Microsoft and other customers – widely known as “carbon credits” for new projects that will need new supplies of power and generate carbon into the atmosphere, such as new data centers. An industry expert called it “one of the largest carbon dioxide removal agreements in history.”

In related news, the 10/12 Industry Report revealed that while the U.S. is losing construction jobs, port and energy growth in Louisiana are bucking the trend.

The latest report states that the U.S. lost another 7,000 construction jobs (mixed residential and commercial) in August. Yet Louisiana has had modest-year-over-year gains in construction jobs – particularly in heavy, civil engineering work, and now has some 139,000 workers in construction, or 7% of the state’s workforce.

Regional economic growth isn’t exclusively energy related; it’s also connected to consumer demand and preferences.

For example, an Off the Hook restaurant recently acquired a certificate of occupancy in Lafayette and will open a restaurant formerly occupied by Viva La Waffle. Off the Hook is a fast-growing seafood restaurant chain based in south Louisiana and now operates eight locations and Lafayette will be its ninth. The chain specializes in fried shrimp, fried catfish, red beans, hamburgers and po-boys. You know, all the good stuff!