Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal hears oral arguments in Entergy gas plant suit
13th January 2020 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Attorneys on both sides made oral arguments in court last Monday regarding the effort to cancel plans for a massive natural gas plant in New Orleans East, moving forward a case that has proved lengthy, contentious and complex.
In front of Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal Judges James McKay, Paula Brown and Dale Atkins, representatives from the City of New Orleans and Entergy New Orleans squared off against attorneys for a coalition of local community and advocacy organizations in the City’s appeal of a ruling last year by Judge Piper Griffin’s ruling voiding the New Orleans City Council’s March 2018 approval a permit for Entergy to construct a $210-million gas plant.
Community groups and public interest organizations – including the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Earthjustice, Green Justice Legal and Loyola Law School – filed suit in April 2018, alleging that the City Council’s decision-making process for Entergy’s permit application was marred by a variety of illegalities that allegedly severely restricted the public’s right to comment and compromised the City Council’s objectiveness in evaluating the permit application.
Griffin, an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge, ruled in July 2019 – following more than a year of further outcry from the public, intense media coverage and the City Council’s investigation of and decision regarding the allegations made by the coalition – that the council’s original March 2018 approval of the Entergy facility was null and void.
The City and then Entergy as well appealed Griffin’s ruling, sending the case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, where oral arguments took place last Monday.
Monique Harden, the assistant director for public policy and an attorney for the Deep South Center, told The Louisiana Weekly that the City Council, in addition to the problems with the original permitting process, continues in “shrinking away” from its responsibilities to the citizens of New Orleans by avoiding hard questions.
“Why is the City Council silent?” she posed. “Why can’t they talk about their decision? Why can’t they say whether they still believe their decision is in the best interests of the people of New Orleans.
“They need to be called on it,” she added.
A representative of the Mayor’s office told The Louisiana Weekly that it can’t comment on pending litigation, while a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office referred questions to the Mayor’s representatives.
Spokespeople for Entergy said they do not comment on ongoing litigation.
Members of the group opposing the gas plant have voiced numerous concerns – several of which have proven true over the last two years – including Entergy’s payment of actors to attend the Council’s public hearings on the plant application and provide faux support for the plant; that dozens of members of the public were physically barred from the Council chambers during one hearing; and other alleged violations of open-meetings laws.
In addition, Harden told The Louisiana Weekly the City Council agreed with Entergy to approve the gas plant before the formal public hearing and discussion of the proposed facility had even begun. Essentially, she said, the placement of a plant that is allegedly environmentally-questionable and deceptively-costly energy – the latter, Harden said, thanks to the massive, 50-year interest payments on the bonds floated to fund the project on the taxpayer’s dime – was a done deal before the public even had a say.
“That blurs the line between the regulator and the regulated,” she said, “and this gas plant is showing the ramifications of that.”
Harden said such actions reflect “the irresponsibility of the Council,” adding the approved permit represents “a big, giant blunder [caused] because the Council didn’t step up and decide what’s best for the people of New Orleans. They decided in the best interests of Entergy.”
She added that given all of these questions, the construction of the plant “is reckless on the part of Entergy as well.
Other groups in the opposition coalition have included VAYLA-New Orleans, Justice and Beyond, 350 New Orleans and the Sierra Club.
Harden said she has heard no specific timeline on the appeals court’s forthcoming decision on the lawsuit.
Other advocates also voiced their concerns after last week’s court date.
“This is an unholy union between the Council and Entergy to attack the right of residents to participate in the Council meetings,” said the Rev. Gregory Manning of Justice and Beyond in a press release. “We hope the Judges saw that clearly today and will stand up for the rights of the people of New Orleans.”
This article originally published in the January 13, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
