Community Leaders & Economic Advocates Challenge Entergy’s Proposal to Build a Gas Plant in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans community advocates are speaking out along with energy experts today before the New Orleans City Council, making their case that a new gas plant proposed by Entergy New Orleans, Inc. will be costly, harmful, and not necessary for New Orleans residents. The New Orleans City Council has ordered an evidentiary hearing on Entergy’s application to build a gas plant and pass the more than $200 million costs onto New Orleans’ residents and businesses. The hearing will be the first time that witnesses representing Entergy New Orleans, Inc. and other parties will be put under oath for cross-examination.

Public interest groups in New Orleans – the Alliance for Affordable Energy, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, 350-New Orleans, and the Sierra Club – have intervened in the case, in opposition to Entergy’s plan for a new gas plant. The groups’ expert witnesses have filed testimonies that show Entergy’s plan for a new gas plant is unnecessary, toxic and unsafe for nearby neighborhoods, and too expensive and unable compete with plans for more efficiency and renewable energy alternatives.

“We are at a critical moment in New Orleans – a city that is vulnerable to climate change, a majority of residents still struggle with inequitable recovery after Hurricane Katrina, and low income residents pay as much as 20 percent of their income on electric bills. New Orleans also leads the nation in electric capacity, not generated by a power plant, but, instead, by solar panels on rooftops that can be seen in every neighborhood, regardless of race and income,” said Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.  “It is at this moment that our City Council will decide whether we make progress toward efficient and renewable energy or fall back to a regressive plan for environmental and economic injustice that would make residents pay more than $200 million to build a polluting gas plant in East New Orleans, where it would pollute and create flood risks for predominantly African American and Vietnamese American neighborhoods and schools.”

Residents in East New Orleans have expressed concerns about the lack of public engagement or opportunity to provide input on Entergy’s proposal, especially since the project has a high environmental, health and financial cost for the community.

“This gas plant would not benefit the residential improvements we need in the East New Orleans East, but will move us in the direction of toxic polluting industrial development, which we don’t want, said Dawn Hebert, Vice President, Lake Willow Neighborhood Association in East New Orleans. “It would also set us back on the progress we need to make on climate change.”

Energy experts testifying to the New Orleans City Council also pointed out some misleading flaws in Entergy’s pitch for the gas plant.

“Entergy New Orleans’ economic and reliability cases for building new gas-fired power plants in East New Orleans are not well-supported, and even misleading,” said Bob Fagan, Energy Economist with Synapse Energy Economics. “Entergy failed to fully analyze the potential of solar and the savings expected with energy efficiency advancements in its projections. This gas plant is not necessary for the city of New Orleans, and it’s not necessary for Entergy as a company.”

“East New Orleans wants solutions. We want clean energy, not dangerous proposals that are going to burden our community with pollution and additional costs,” said Minh Nguyen, Executive Director of VAYLA in East New Orleans.

New Orleans City Council’s evidentiary hearing on Entergy’s proposed gas plant start today and will continue through Friday, December 22.

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