Entergy wants customers to pay more …again
30th October 2023 · 0 Comments
The inflation rate is below five percent for the first time in two years. You would think U.S. citizens would be flocking to malls and stores and flexing their spending power.
But, no.
Gasoline prices are up (3%), food prices are up (3.7%), and electricity rates are up (15.9 cents per kilowatt-hour), according to the latest inflation data published October 12, by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
According to sources, Entergy’s electricity rate is below the national average. It’s between 11 and 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. Sounds good, right? But when New Orleanians open their bills, they inhale and exhale sharply.
Bills $400 to $700 or more are a bit much for a city with a per capita annual income of $34,036, according to the Census Bureau. Once you factor in that 25.2 percent of the population live in poverty, or are senior citizens on fixed social security incomes, the monthly Entergy New Orleans bills become scary. There are no options for paying the electricity and gas bill. Either pay or risk dying from heat stroke in your home or fumbling around in the dark in the daytime.
Entergy (NYSE: ETR), a Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans, provides electricity for three million customers across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Entergy Louisiana earns $11 billion annually. So why must customers pay for massive repairs after storms, in addition to paying for the electricity and gas they use? Why is Entergy being treated like a non-profit organization? And why do customers pay for repairs to an antiquated electricity delivery system?
Every time there is a storm or hurricane, we hear about hundreds of utility poles that need to be replaced. Who pays for that? Us.
The state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) regulates Entergy Louisiana. However, the New Orleans City Council oversees Entergy New Orleans (ENO), the city’s sole electric and gas provider. The City Council is now considering Entergy New Orleans’ (ENO) “Operation: Gridiron” (OGI), a proposal to harden New Orleans’ grid.
After Hurricane Ida in 2021, the New Orleans City Council directed Entergy and other stakeholders, such as the Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE), to offer measures to increase the city’s grid resiliency.
According to the utility monopoly, if approved, OGI will provide New Orleans with one of the most storm-ready power infrastructures in the United States. The plan includes:
Investing $1 billion in the grid over 10 years in two five-year phases, cutting outage times by more than half, saving customers millions of dollars, upgrading thousands of poles to withstand 150 mph winds, and hardening 650 miles of power lines.
That plan calls for $1.5 billion in projects over 10 years. And who will pay for that? Us.
The Louisiana Weekly agrees with the Alliance for Affordable Energy’s position that New Orleans ratepayers, who suffer one of the highest energy burdens in the country, must not be made to bear the total cost of resilience and storm-hardening measures that Entergy should have undertaken years ago.
“Resilience planning must be about protecting the people of New Orleans – from high energy burdens due to extreme heat and cold, from routine workday outages, and from long-term catastrophic outages that result in the deaths of vulnerable members of our community,” AAE wrote.
Entergy asked the City Council to approve its plan by the end of the year.
Entergy Louisiana, which provides power to other parishes, will charge ratepayers an extra $5.50 monthly for restoration costs from Hurricane Ida and other storms, The Advocate reported earlier this year.
Entergy Louisiana’s latest charge is in addition to a $10 per month levy the PSC approved earlier this year to let Entergy recoup $3.2 billion in costs for several recent storms. Both charges will stay on customer bills for 15 years. This in addition to fact that customers are still paying for costs associated with Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall in 2012.
NOLA.com reported the PSC is exploring whether to move away from its current model, where investor-owned utilities like Entergy are monopolies in many areas. The five-member body is discussing opening Louisiana’s utility market to more competition, which Entergy and Cleco, another major utility, are fighting.
In August 2023, Entergy Louisiana filed a regulatory proposal with the Louisiana Public Service Commission that promises clean, reliable, affordable electric service.
According to a company statement, the proposal includes improvements to the grid while maintaining low rates and company accountability for providing high service levels to customers with financial penalties if these standards are not met. Promises and talk are cheap.
New Orleanians have long argued for the opportunity to choose utility providers from competing companies. Because it is a monopoly, Entergy New Orleans can raise rates and make customers pay for repairs to the company’s equipment and fail to compensate customers adequately for power failures that may cause food loss and computer damage from electrical surges, not to mention the dangerous health effects from sweltering heat or debilitating cold.
The pittance of help ENO gives – a one-time bill payment via Total Community Action or The Council on Aging isn’t cutting it.
If ENO is a profit-making business, it should pay for equipment repairs or get insurance or warranties to cover damages. Small businesses and individuals must pay to protect their assets. Why not ENO? Entergy claims to be a service provider. But it is only serving its investors and shareholders.
New Orleanians need the City Council to look out for the people who elected them and not allow private companies or monopolies to charge exorbitant rates.
This article originally published in the October 30, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
