Community Stands Strong, Promises to Keep Fighting After New Orleans City Council Approves Entergy’s $230 Million Dollar Gas Plant

Approval will mean higher electric bills & more pollution
Contact

Vanessa Ramos, vanessa.ramos@sierraclub.org, (512) 586-1853

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Today, hundreds of residents, community leaders and local coalitions filled the New Orleans City Council chambers, sending a message to the council to say “no” to Entergy’s $230 million gas power plant. Despite a strong and passionate showing from the at-capacity crowd, the New Orleans City Council voted 6 to 1 to approve the plant for New Orleans. Councilwoman Susan Guidry voted against the plant.

“With the exception of Councilmember Guidry, the council turned its back on the people of New Orleans,” said Monique Harden, Assistant Director of Law & Policy, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. “We are resolved to challenge this decision and will continue to fight for a livable, sustainable, equitable New Orleans.”

The communities directly harmed will now face billions of pounds of toxic air pollution, increased flood risk and all Entergy customers in Orleans Parish will see higher electric bills. Entergy plans to build this new gas power plant on a FEMA floodplain within 2 miles of homes, churches, and schools. Opponents emphasize that dumping heavy polluting industry in the middle of a Vietnamese, Black and Latino neighborhood is environmental racism.  

“Our community is a strong one in New Orleans East,” said Minh Nguyen, Executive Director of VAYLA. “We have a history of fighting environmental racism. We stopped a landfill from displacing our community once before, and we will stop this gas plant.”

Opponents of the gas plant maintain there are less expensive and safer and more affordable options for addressing frequent power outages that have plagued New Orleans. Failures in poles and wires in the distribution system cause more than 2,000 outages in New Orleans each year. Entergy claims the gas plant will prevent these power outages, yet 98% of them are caused by failures in the poles and wires of the distribution system, and the rest are transmission failures.

What we deserve is a focus on more reliable infrastructure instead of this expensive gas plant from Entergy. We demand a smarter energy future for our community and want investment in clean energy that truly provides resilience in the face of climate change. The world is watching and we cannot say we are preparing for a sea-level rise if we are doubling down on a gas plant in a floodplain,” said Logan Burke, Executive Director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

A mix of modern transmission and distribution systems along with solar generation, battery storage, and energy efficiency are the clean energy solutions New Orleans deserves, instead of the same old antiquated polluting industry that contributes to land loss and coastal erosion.

The cost of more than $200 million dollars and all of the financial risk from the power plant will be placed squarely on customers, while Entergy stands to make tens of millions of dollars in increased profits.  Entergy limited the Council’s options by refusing to provide analysis of lower cost solutions. To make the economic case for their power plant, Entergy used highly unrealistic market projections that were roundly rejected by expert witnesses and the Council’s own Advisors. This creates an unreasonable and uncontrolled risk for customers that could lead to even higher costs on customer bills. While the issue of placing protective financial conditions was raised by Councilwoman Guidry, the Council took no action to limit the risk of higher costs to customers.  

Louisiana has prioritized coastal restoration in the face of the state’s coastal crisis, yet Entergy’s gas plant is proposed in a FEMA flood zone that flooded in Hurricane Katrina. A costly and polluting gas plant would make New Orleans more at risk to hurricanes and sea level rise, and is at odds with City commitments to a renewable and efficient energy future.

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The Energy Future New Orleans coalition includes Alliance for Affordable Energy, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Sierra Club, VAYLA and 350 New Orleans.

 

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