At America’s last alumina refinery, a trade war spells trade-offs
Trump wants the U.S. to make more aluminum. In Louisiana, home to the only domestic producer of a material essential to that process, some say a ramp-up would take years and worsen pollution.
April 6, 2025, 4:00 AM MST
By Alexandra Byrne and Travers Mackel
President Donald Trump wants to reinvigorate American industry with tariffs on metals, cars and dozens of foreign exporters. In Gramercy, Louisiana, home to the nation’s last refiner of the key material for making aluminum, locals aren’t sold on joining any such revival.
“It would be a good thing to go out of business,” Barbara Dumas, 58, said of the plant she’s lived across the river from for 15 years. Like many residents, she bemoans the area’s industrial pollution and believes her community would be better off without the refinery. “It may hurt the people that’s working there, but at least people around here can live safer.”
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