Louisiana advocacy groups sue to stop bonds for steel mill project

Two Louisiana advocacy groups filed a lawsuit to stop a planned $385 million lease revenue bond issuance by the Port of South Louisiana that would help finance a Hyundai steel facility.

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The groups, Rural Roots Louisiana and Louisiana Bucket Brigade, say the bonds were not properly advertised before approval by the port and the Louisiana State Bond Commission.

The commission approved the bonds, which haven’t been issued, in September.

The suit, filed in 40th Judicial District Court, Parish of St. John the Baptist, Louisiana, is focused on the validity of the bond commission’s approval, said attorney Pam Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The advocacy groups previously filed suit in the spring charging the port with failing to advertise its summer 2025 meeting where the bonds were approved.

The new suit focuses more closely on the bonds’ validity and will be heard on a faster timeline than the earlier suit, Spees said.

“Louisiana law imposes mandatory requirements concerning publication of proceedings and notice relating to the issuance of public obligations,” the groups said in the latest suit. “The port’s Aug. 5, 2025, proceedings were not published contemporaneously with, or even within a reasonable time of, their adoption in violation of [several state laws],” the suit says. 

At September’s meeting the “commission’s staff expressly identified the constitutional requirement of prior approval for the issuance of bonds or other obligations and declined to make a recommendation concerning retroactive approval of [a related] $15 million obligation,” the suit said. 

The groups asked for an expedited hearing to determine whether the port’s authorization of the bonds was valid, whether the agreement for the Louisiana Economic Development Commission to loan $15 million to the port was valid, and to declare the bonds invalid and enjoin their issuance. 

Neither the port nor Louisiana Economic Development immediately responded to a request for comment. 

Both the $385 million bonds and $15 million loan were to be used to help finance a steel mill project led by Hyundai America. The money would fund construction of a permanent marine terminal, a heavy haul road and construction bridge near where the steel mill is expected to be constructed.

The advocacy groups have complained about what they say is the excessiveness of the state’s $2 billion in aid for the project, the secrecy of the project’s roll out, and that the area suffers from too much pollution.