Citizens urge N.O. City Council to oppose Entergy’s proposed rate hike

By Meghan Holmes
Contributing Writer

Last week, Entergy filed a petition with the New Orleans City Council to increase the rates of both electric and gas customers as early as November 2021.

Citing a failure to meet last year’s revenue targets as well as costs associated with gas infrastructure and renewable energy goals, the company would charge customers an average of $25 more per home, based on a 1,000kw/h “average” bill. Advocates at groups like the Alliance for Affordable Energy question the necessity of the proposed rate increases, arguing that much of the company’s lost revenue will be recouped in coming months with COVID-related relief funds, and that renewable energy infrastructure will result in a net savings for the company.

“Entergy says they simply did not bring in enough money during the pandemic, but there’s a lot of federal funds still unaccounted for,” said Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, at a Together New Orleans meeting on August 3 discussing the proposed rate increases.

“LIHEAP, or the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, funding doubled this year, so that’s typically tens of millions of dollars Entergy will have access to, and they’ll also have funds associated with federal home ownership programs and rental programs, as well as deferred payment options the company set up last year for around 27,000 customers. So, does it make sense to increase rates if these revenue potholes will be filled anyway?” she said. The company is currently owed around $30 million for delinquent bills after suspending disconnects for nonpayment for those financially impacted by COVID.

Entergy’s proposed increases will impact customers differently depending on the type of services they receive. For people who only have electric service and not gas, their bill will go up around $10 per month for every $100 they pay. Gas customers will see an increase of around $14 for every $50 they pay. (These amounts are based on “average” bills). Customers with both gas and electric service will pay an extra $25 per month on average if the city council approves the new rates. The increases will also impact small businesses and faith-based organizations, with the average church seeing an increase of $268 monthly.

The company says the increases are necessary to pay for infrastructure improvements, including a new solar power station, investments in older gas lines, and the addition of rooftop solar projects, as well as to meet the City Council’s green energy mandates.

“Entergy is pointing the finger at renewable energy targets including a rooftop solar project they did without the council’s approval, but renewables and efficiency programs actually result in a net savings to us,” Burke said. “Power plants, like the new power plant in the East, and investments in gas infrastructure are the reasons for most of these increases.”

The Alliance for Affordable Energy is one of dozens of organizations making up the Together New Orleans’ coalition of groups hoping to sway city council candidates before elections in November. At this week’s meeting discussing the rate increases, organizers asked locals to share stories of how higher rates would impact them, and then encouraged people to take these stories to their city council people and ask them to oppose any increases.

“I don’t think our city council should go along with this,” said the Rev. Dr. Jennie Curry at the meeting. “This is quite serious. I’m a retiree and my income does not go up when expenses do, so this could wreck a fixed budget. We are even more stressed in this pandemic, and I would say to the city council that if they decide to pass this, then they have to pay for it, not pass it on to us.”

Unlike every other city in the United States aside from Washington, D.C., New Orleans’ City Council has the authority to regulate utilities. For most places, that power resides with the state. Organizers and advocates want citizens to take advantage of that unique authority.

“This city has potential extraordinary power over its utilities. This City Council is the regulatory authority for this city, and that’s an unusual and positive situation. If we demand it, we can have our utility system function not as something we try to wrangle but something that serves the interest of the city, and that’s a vision we wanna work towards,” said Broderick Bagert, an organizer with Together New Orleans.

This article originally published in the August 9, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.