Louisiana citizens call for action on oil disaster, clean energy

June 25 - On June 18th, a sweltering Friday in Baton Rouge, a small but dedicated group gathered on the steps of the State Capitol. For the second day in a row, these residents, students, and activists met to express their distress with the growing oil disaster, and demand clean energy alternatives for Louisiana.

As Valerie Draves of Lafayette waited in the shade for the rally to begin, she talked about how seeing the crude oil firsthand left her upset, angry, and frustrated. She went down to Grand Isle when the oil first started washing up, and described the disorganized clean-up efforts and the potent smell of the toxic oil as it heated up and began to evaporate on the beach.

“I really got inspired to want to help,” she said. “ I couldn’t sit down; I couldn’t stop thinking about it… It’s like a nightmare.” The message of the rally that day, she said, is, “for Louisiana to have a more diverse economy, because we are addicted to oil in this state… It’s time for clean energy.”

Rachel Guillory, a student at LSU, echoed that message, “This kind of thing should never, ever, ever happen again... [Oil jobs] could easily be replaced with clean energy jobs.” She is a member of the Youth Alliance of Louisiana Leaders (Y’ALL) a coalition of campus environmental group across the state that helped organize the event, along with Coastal Rescue, the Sierra Club, and the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

After a rally on the steps of the Capitol building, the advocates went inside and met with members of the State Legislature, asking them to sign a resolution on the oil disaster and clean energy. The resolution calls for all available resources to go towards stopping the flow of oil and protecting the coasts and coastal residents, and calls for ensuring that responsible parties fully compensate all legitimate claims of the people impacted by the devastation. The resolution also calls for the State Legislature to make clean energy and economic diversification a priority for Louisiana in the next legislative session.

Liz Shephard of the Alliance for Affordable Energy says that a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a critical step for Louisiana to develop cleaner, safer energy sources. The RPS would require the Public Utilities Commission to draw a certain percent of its power from renewable sources like solar energy.

Shephard says the issues simply boil down to this, “We need to change our energy policy in order to protect what we love and care about most.”