At America's last alumina refinery, a trade war spells trade-offs

But the new metal tariffs don’t cover alumina, and Hansen said his modest efforts to lobby Washington policymakers haven’t had much success.

“It’s not like we’re Coca-Cola or something,” he said. “We don’t get that level of attention.”

A White House spokesperson said the administration expects the aluminum tariffs to increase the nation’s production capacity for the critical metal, adding that its efforts to reduce energy costs and slash regulations would also boost the primary aluminum industry.

After decades of offshoring some of the most energy-intensive parts of the alumina refining process, the United States makes far less of the material than it uses. Smelters, just four of which remain domestically, rely on imports for about 60% of their alumina needs.

Jobs in the primary aluminum sector have plummeted nearly 70% since 2013, the Aluminum Association estimates. Most job growth has been in secondary aluminum, among “downstream” companies like product fabricators and recyclers. The domestic industry can’t continue to expand without foreign-made primary aluminum, said Charles Johnson, the trade group’s CEO.

“We are very encouraged by some of the actions that President Trump has taken as he has entered office,” he said, including the call to ramp up smelting in the U.S., but Johnson said that process could take a decade. Until then, the downstream sector needs access to foreign supplies — especially from Canada, which the Aluminum Association and other industry stakeholders have urged the administration to spare from tariffs even as they cheer duties on China, a top exporter of cheap metals.

“It’s not an easy thing” to reboot domestic metal production, said Morris Cohen, a supply chain expert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “It takes time and a lot of effort” and involves “a lot of trade-offs,” he said.

Pollution is one of them, according to those who live near the Atalco plant.

“I wouldn’t be breathing too much if I were you,” said Willie Youngblood Sr., “not around here.”

The 67-year-old said he’s watched bauxite shipments roll up to the Gramercy complex for 40 years from his home across the river in Vacherie. Residents of St. James Parish, which includes both communities, say airborne particles from the alumina refinery are contributing to a number of illnesses.

Youngblood, who uses an oxygen tank, partly attributes his lung troubles to the plant’s emissions. He said he doesn’t hang clothes out to dry because the bauxite dust turns everything red.

“Your car gets covered with it,” he said. “You don’t see butterflies. You don’t see nothing around here.”

The stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is widely known as “Cancer Alley,” an industrial corridor once home to slave plantations and now the site of large petrochemical facilities that regulators and activists have long blamed for the area’s well-documented health problems.

Bauxite refinement generates hazardous waste with high levels of arsenic and chromium along with naturally occurring radioactive materials, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The Atalco plant was investigated in 2020 by Louisiana regulators for alleged air-quality violations, a matter it settled in 2022 for $75,000 without admitting fault.

If the trade war juices demand for Louisiana alumina and Atalco ramp ups its output in response, locals would suffer, said Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental advocacy group.

“Increased production means a lot more fine particulate pollution for the people” in the area, she said.

St. James Parish, where 47% of the residents are Black, was among a few parts of rural Louisiana where voters didn’t back Trump by large margins. He won it by a single percentage point in November while netting 60% support statewide.

“We need some kind of economic development that’s healthy, not just relying on these big polluters,” Rolfes said.

Hansen said management has addressed concerns about dust from the refinery, which he said is always trying to be a good neighbor.

“There’s no overriding concerns that make it an unworthy operation in the American industrial economy,” he said. “It’s been there for longer than I’ve been alive.”

John Fleming, Louisiana’s Republican treasurer, said Trump’s tariff agenda could help businesses like Atlantic Aluminum “because that’s less competition from overseas.” He said the state lost major industrial employers after the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994.

“Free trade did not work out well for us because it wasn’t free or fair trade,” he said. “In this case, we’re returning to a fair trade.”

“Look,” Fleming added, “the United States can outcompete anybody.”

For now, Hansen is just trying to keep production levels steady and has no plans to expand. If tariffs wind up bolstering U.S. smelting capacity, he said it could boost Atalco’s customer base — though that would likely take years.

“We think there’s a future for that, but it does sometimes involve shorter-term higher costs to make sure that the resiliency of those industries is there,” Hansen said.

Some locals would rather not wait around to see how the refinery fares.

“I’ve been here for about 15 years too long,” said Barbara Dumas in Vacherie. “I’m ready to move back home to some fresh air.”