NEW Sierra Club Report: As Energy Demand Rises, Cleco Moves Away From Costly Coal While Entergy LA Over-Relies on Gas

LOUISIANA - Today, the Sierra Club released its annual Dirty Truth Report, which grades 75 utilities across the country on their plans to deliver affordable, clean energy to customers. The report found that Cleco and Entergy Louisiana are taking dramatically different approaches to phasing out dirty and expensive energy sources, while both could do more to expand clean energy. As data centers spike electricity demand across Louisiana, communities and businesses across the state are facing rising bills depending on how utilities respond. 

Cleco has made significant gains on the Dirty Truth Report. The utility received a “B” grade this year, marking improvement after receiving “D” ratings on every report since 2021. Cleco has committed to retiring nearly all of its costly coal units – over 500 MW – with the exception of the Brame Energy Center’s Madison 3 unit, which barely ran in 2024, likely due to high operational costs. Interestingly, just a year prior, Cleco settled its rate case with the Sierra Club and agreed to run Madison 3 only when it was economically reasonable. Moreover, the utility scrapped plans for an unfeasible $900 million carbon capture and storage project, likely due to the high cost and unpopularity of the project. Cleco’s decisions amount to some positive news for customers, with the exception of the costly remaining coal unit and the utility’s decision to build out more gas plants rather than renewable energy. 

Entergy Louisiana, meanwhile, has gone in the opposite direction. The utility’s rating on the Dirty Truth Report dropped from a “B” in 2024 to a “C” this year. While receiving positive ratings for efforts to transition from costly coal, the utility earned very low scores due to an over-reliance on gas and fewer investments in renewable energy. 

“Louisiana families, especially in marginalized communities, spend an unsustainable amount of their income on gas and electricity bills – and they’re overburdened with dirty air and water. Louisiana’s lowest-income households, making $10,000 per year on average, spend $1 in every $5 on energy bills. Cleco has made some recent strides to address this by retiring some of its coal, but expanding gas infrastructure and extending the life of the Madison 3 plant will only force Louisianians to pay even more while increasing harmful pollution,” said Emory Hopkins, a Sierra Club Beyond Coal organizer based in Louisiana. “Entergy Louisiana backslid this year due to doubling down on gas over affordable clean energy – and this will only drive prices up for Louisianans.”

Faced with rapidly increasing load projections, utility companies are failing to meet this critical moment by championing affordable renewable energy—instead, they are backsliding on their commitments and doubling down on fossil fuels. Across all 75 utilities, the companies scored an aggregate of 15 out of 100 points, earning an F. This marks the lowest score since the first year of this report in 2021, and the first time the score has ever dropped below the inaugural report. 

With this interactive webpage, users can see their utility’s score and what progress–if any–the utility has made toward transitioning to cleaner, more affordable energy since the first version of the report in 2021. 

“It is alarming that for the first time since 2021, utilities are regressing on their clean energy transition,” said Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender. “By adding more gas and keeping costly coal plants online, utility companies are ignoring renewable energy—the cheapest form of energy—and forcing their customers to pay more. As energy costs rise and extreme weather becomes more frequent, now is the time to phase out polluting, volatile, expensive fossil fuels and invest in stable, reliable, and affordable, clean energy.”