Oil prices are down $10 over last week, hovering around $60 per barrel. According to one expert, that's bad news for the state of Louisiana.
In fact, LSU Center for Energy Studies director Greg Upton says the state's economy could take a pretty big hit because of the oil price drop.
"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but certainly this last week is not good for the energy sector in Louisiana," Upton said.
According to Upton says the state of Louisiana's oil industry is facing a double whammy. Upton says OPEC's decision to flood the market with petroleum could cost oil industry workers their jobs.
"The downward pressure in price or the drop in price certainly is going to reduce the probability that a company is going to move forward with any activity in terms of production," Upton says.
Upton says more importantly, President Trump's tariffs will hurt the state's oil refineries and companies that convert imported gas into liquid fuel, plastics, and other products.
"How that kind of international trade and the very international nature of our economy here, we might actually see some slowdowns in those petrochemical sectors as well," Upton said.
According to Upton, all of those factors combined could put a dent in the state budget.
"With all these tariffs that are happening, they're going to increase the cost of doing business," Upton said. "You'll have the direct impact in terms of the state budget when the oil price drops and how that directly impacts the state budget, but also all of this uncertainty is probably not good news for the economic forecast."