ENROLLED Page 1 of 2 Regular Session, 2013 HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 86 BY REPRESENTATIVE ST. GERMAIN A RESOLUTION To designate Tuesday, May 7, 2013, as Louisiana Chemical Industry Day. WHEREAS, nature endowed Louisiana with gifts that provided the springboard for major industry which has brought great benefits to the people of the state; and WHEREAS, these gifts include abundant oil and natural gas, salt dome caverns, sulfur deposits, fresh water, and access to oceans of the world through the Calcasieu Basin and Mississippi River; and WHEREAS, the petrochemical industry that has grown up around these natural amenities has become one of Louisiana's greatest assets; and WHEREAS, the Louisiana chemical industry acknowledges that it depends upon Louisiana and its residents for its resources, a well-trained workforce, and a strong business climate; and WHEREAS, this industry provides the most direct jobs in Louisiana's manufacturing sector, employing nearly twenty-seven thousand Louisiana citizens in fifty-three of the state's sixty-four parishes, and tens of thousands more employees in hundreds of businesses that support the industry; and WHEREAS, an additional one hundred forty thousand jobs are generated indirectly by chemical industry activity in Louisiana, and the Louisiana chemical industry produces nearly fifty-eight billion dollars in products annually, the third highest total in the nation; and WHEREAS, Louisiana exports over eight billion dollars in chemical products annually to other parts of the world; and WHEREAS, chemical industry wages in Louisiana are forty-seven percent higher than the average manufacturing wages in Louisiana; and ENROLLEDHR NO. 86 Page 2 of 2 WHEREAS, the industry contributes more than one billion dollars annually to state and local coffers through direct tax payments and through household earnings generated by the Louisiana chemical industry; and WHEREAS, almost nine billion dollars of total direct employee earnings are generated by local chemical companies; and WHEREAS, Louisianians' lives are enhanced and improved every day by chemical products produced in Louisiana, ranging from fire-resistant foam used in bedding and the chair on which we sit to the nitrogen in bags that give potato chips a longer shelf life, to golf clubs, to hard hats, to bulletproof vests, to contact lenses, to pacemakers, and to thousands more consumer products; and WHEREAS, the Louisiana chemical industry is more than just a group of companies and is comprised of a collection of people who want the same things their neighbors want: safe and clean communities with vibrant neighborhoods, good schools, and a strong economy; and WHEREAS, the Louisiana chemical industry is essential to the state's economic growth and to its economic development. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby recognize the essential role the chemical industry plays in Louisiana's economic development and does hereby proclaim Tuesday, May 7, 2013, as Louisiana Chemical Industry Day. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the Louisiana Chemical Association. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES