On February 21, 2018, the New Orleans City Councilmembers who make up the Utility Committee are expected to vote on whether New Orleans residents and businesses should foot the bill for an expensive, unnecessary and harmful gas power plant that would only profit Entergy.
Sign the petition at www.nogasplant.com.
Attend the February 21st City Council Utility Committee Meeting & give a public comment
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018
Time: 10:00 am
Place: Pan American Building, 601 Poydras, 11th floor (** new location! **)
From our Executive Committee Chair Dave Stets:
Please come and ask friends and activists ... especially those who are retired to show up at the Feb 21st, Utility Committee Meeting in advance of the 10 AM start time (arrive at 9 AM) in the Pan American Life building, 601 Poydras St, 11th floor conference center Auditorium and say, “We don’t need this power plant”. Say more if you want up to two minutes.
(Why arrive at 9 AM – once before on an important vote Entergy sent a bus full of paid seat fillers to fill up all the seats, no standing in the aisles).
Ps: bring a drink and snacks - the meeting could go 3 hours! You can leave after you say, “We don’t need this power plant.”
WE DON’T NEED A GAS POWER PLANT
A gas power plant is a false solution. Entergy would like customers to believe that a gas plant will fix the frequent power outages, but it won’t. The primary cause of the numerous power outages is Entergy’s failure to maintain and repair poles and wires in our neighborhoods. This is a problem Entergy has ignored for years. Entergy has also failed to make the system storm- ready even though it was directed to do so by the City Council after Hurricane Katrina.
Entergy’s claim that a new gas plant would be needed during extreme weather doesn’t hold water. Entergy plans to build the gas plant in a high-risk flood hazard area, where FEMA policy discourages the building of a new power plant. Entergy executives admitted that they planned the gas plant without considering the City of New Orleans Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance, which adopts FEMA standards.
The math doesn’t add up. In February 2017, Entergy admitted that it overestimated customer demand for electricity. Entergy requested a suspension on the application, but came back to the City Council in July with the exact same plan plus the option of a second slightly smaller gas plant. Running out of reasons for building a new gas plant, Entergy now argues that in an extraordinary event when there are two simultaneous failures of the transmission system during a 50-hour period when electric use is high, a gas plant would be needed. A transmission upgrade would be a cheaper and more effective solution than a new gas plant for this unlikely situation. Entergy cannot find any independent authority to back its claim that either gas plant is needed.
Entergy’s promise of jobs with a new gas plant turns out to be, at most, 13 permanent jobs. The greatest potential for job growth is in energy efficiency and renewable energy, which is the fastest growing job sector in the US economy. There are more than 250 New Orleanians working in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries.
A GAS POWER PLANT RAISES OUR ELECTRICITY BILLS – FOR 30+ YEARS
If the gas plant is approved by the City Council, New Orleans residents and businesses would be stuck paying the more than $200 million construction cost over the next 30 years on their Entergy bills. Currently, low-income residents pay up to 20 percent of their income on Entergy bills, which ranks New Orleans second among US cities where low-income households struggle to pay the highest energy burdens in the nation. A new gas plant would cause Entergy bills to go up for every customer.
With the oversupply of electricity on the grid, there are no customers outside of New Orleans lined up to buy electricity from Entergy’s proposed gas plant that could contribute to paying the expensive construction cost.
Gas-fired peaking power plants, like the one Entergy wants to build in New Orleans East, are among the most expensive ways to generate energy. Gas plants are more expensive than energy efficiency, renewable energy, or transmission upgrades.
A GAS PLANT IS DANGEROUS & UNFAIR
Entergy’s first and second gas plant applications to the City Council failed to consider the harmful health impacts and safety risks of building a gas plant in New Orleans East, near predominantly African American, Vietnamese American and Latinx neighborhoods. Each gas plant proposal would annually release more than 1 million pounds of harmful air pollution that can cause lung damage, asthma, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and cancer.
Gas plants pollute, and gas plants can explode and have pipeline ruptures as we have recently seen around the south (Pascagoula, MS, Gibson, LA, Waco, TX, and New Orleans East, LA). The risk of fires and explosions would be an ever-present threat to the lives of New Orleans residents whose homes, schools, playgrounds, churches, hospitals, and businesses are near Entergy’s chosen location for a gas plant.
Each year the proposed Entergy gas plant would also release over 1 billion pounds of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Entergy’s refusal to adopt sustainable energy alternatives instead of a gas plant would erase the progress our city is making on climate action. Entergy’s gas plant would send the wrong message, closing the door on important opportunities for investing in our city and making our neighborhoods climate resilient.
Documents reveal that a prior agreement was made with Entergy to develop a new gas plant of at least 120 MW in New Orleans with Michoud as a potential site for it. This prior agreement took place outside of the public process for energy planning (“Integrated Resource Planning”) and the gas plant application process. This agreement sets up an unfair, undemocratic process for Council decision-making.
A GAS POWER PLANT WORSENS SUBSIDENCE & THREATENS OUR LEVEES
Both of Entergy proposed gas plants would continue to use groundwater, which can cause a high rate of land subsidence. A NASA report found that Entergy’s past use of groundwater for the Michoud power plant (shut down in 2016) affected the high rate of land subsidence (sinking) under a levee that breached during Hurricane Katrina. As there is no legal limit on how much groundwater is sucked up by an industrial plant, Entergy’s proposed gas plant options create serious flood risks by withdrawing groundwater that can cause the land to sink under nearby flood control infrastructure.
WE NEED AND DESERVE REAL SOLUTIONS
It’s time for a renewable and efficient energy future! Modern technology is cheaper, cleaner and better than outdated technology of burning gas to generate electricity. Energy efficiency, solar and wind energy are all cheaper and cleaner than Entergy’s proposed gas plant. Transmission upgrades, batteries (energy storage) and smart grids are better than a gas plant to prevent power outages and maintain grid reliability. The combination of these 21st century technologies presents real solutions for New Orleans residents and businesses.
Take Action to STOP Entergy’s proposed gas plant!
Call City Council! Especially Councilmembers-at-Large who both sit on the Utility Committee, your District Councilperson, and Mayor-Elect Cantrell.
Sample Script for calling City Council:
My name is______, and I’m a resident of (neighborhood/district). I’m calling to ask Councilmember ______ to vote No on Entergy’s proposal to build a gas plant in New Orleans on our dime. I don’t want to pay for a gas power plant that we don’t need.
Jason Williams, Councilmember-At-Large (Utility Committee Chair)
Phone: (504) 658-1070; Email: jasonwilliams@nola.gov
Stacy Head, Councilmember-At-Large (Utility Committee)
Phone: (504) 658-1060; Email: shead@nola.gov
Susan Guidry, District "A" (Utility Committee)
Phone: (504) 658-1010; Email: sgguidry@nola.gov
LaToya Cantrell, District "B" (Mayor-Elect)
Phone: (504) 658-1020; Email: lcantrell@nola.gov
Nadine Ramsey, District "C"
Phone: (504) 658-1030; Email: districtc@nola.gov
James Gray, District “E” (Utility Committee)
Phone: (504) 658-1050; Email: jagray@nola.gov
Jared Brossett, District "D" (Utility Committee)
Phone: (504) 658-1040; Email: councildistrictd@nola.gov
For more information, check out this Guest Column: Entergy misleads council, public on power plant, by Forest Bradley-Wright, in The Advocate, as well as this highly informative fact sheet.