What We Do
The Alliance monitors regulatory proceedings at both of Louisiana’s utility regulatory bodies: the New Orleans City Council and the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The Alliance is holding electric and gas utilities, and their regulators accountable. We ensure that unfair costs are not passed along to ratepayers on their energy bills.
In April 2012, we won a case against Entergy that will save ratepayers from having to foot a $72 million bill for a failed nuclear power study. Check out some of our other successes below!
Consumer Protection:
How We Do It
Ratepayer's Bill of Rights | Managing Utility Profits | Reliability Utility Docket
Ratepayer’s Bill of Rights | Customer Complaint Process
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The Alliance for Affordable Energy and Citizens for Change worked with the New Orleans City Council and Entergy New Orleans to develop a Ratepayer’s Bill of Rights.
Now part of the city code, the law states “If you feel that the Utility has violated your rights or is in violation of its Customer Service Regulations, you have the right to participate in the Customer Complaint and Dispute Resolution Process.” The Alliance helps consumers with bill errors navigate the process.
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Managing Utility Profits
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The law allows investor owned utilities to earn a profit, called Rate of Return. The utilities in Louisiana are earning about 11% guaranteed profit, one of the highest in the southeast. Since the economic downturn, the rate of return has stayed the same. Though banks are earning 3.5-4.5% off 30 year mortgages these days, it is not fair that utilities remain unaffected by the national economy.
The Alliance will be intervening in upcoming Utility rate cases to dispute the profit margin currently allowed. To learn more check out our blog post Why Utility Rate Design is So Hot Right Now! |
Need some help understanding utility rate design? Referenced in our blog post is Bob Shively's helpful EnergyDynamics article, The Revenue Requirement Is the Key to How Utilities Make Money.
Reliability | Docket UD-17-04
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NOLA has MANY power outages, almost 3000 in 2017 alone! Entergy's data shows that 98% of outages are due to transmission and distribution line problems. Docket UD-17-04 looks into what is causing the system problems and ways to fix them.
Two years later after the opening of Docket UD-17-04, Entergy was found to have acted imprudently in its reaction to the reliability crisis. On November 7, 2019 the Council passed Resolution R-19-442 imposing a “one-time $1 million penalty against Entergy." Sadly, the story does not stop there. On December 6, 2019, Entergy sued the Council in the Civil District Court over the one-time $1 million penalty. |
On June 13, 2022, Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Rachael Johnson issued a ruling in favor of Entergy, releasing them from the $1m fine. Entergy has not resolved its reliability issues in the intervening period. In fact, Entergy’s reliability declined significantly in 2021 compared to previous years.
While we have not yet been able to review a written judgment, Judge Johnson’s Monday ruling is a major impediment to the Council’s ability to regulate Entergy effectively and enforce meaningful penalties for the utility’s repeated failures, such as during Winter Storm Uri in 2021.
Find out more about the courts latest decision and its implications in our blog post: Entergy New Orleans Reliability Judgement.
While we have not yet been able to review a written judgment, Judge Johnson’s Monday ruling is a major impediment to the Council’s ability to regulate Entergy effectively and enforce meaningful penalties for the utility’s repeated failures, such as during Winter Storm Uri in 2021.
Find out more about the courts latest decision and its implications in our blog post: Entergy New Orleans Reliability Judgement.
Consumer Education:
How We Do It
Air Quality Monitoring | Engage LPSC | LA's Pipelines | HIA | Social Media | Energy Education | Consumer Advocacy
Air Quality Monitoring in Death Alley
In partnership with the Climate Reality Project and through their Climate Justice for All grants program, The Alliance has launched a project focused on education and urgent action around the toxic air emissions in Death Alley (formerly known as “Cancer Alley”).
The project is focused on the participation of the residents of the St. James Baptist Parish and the St. Johns Baptist Parish, where 29 petrochemical plants continue to pollute and endanger frontline communities in the 5th District whose population is 90 percent Black.
This project empowers local residents by supplying them with air monitors and teaching them how to use them, as well as to compile air quality data that their local authorities have repeatedly refused to make public. That said, locals in St. John and St. James will thus have more control to drive the conversation about making sure they have safe air to breathe.
The project is focused on the participation of the residents of the St. James Baptist Parish and the St. Johns Baptist Parish, where 29 petrochemical plants continue to pollute and endanger frontline communities in the 5th District whose population is 90 percent Black.
This project empowers local residents by supplying them with air monitors and teaching them how to use them, as well as to compile air quality data that their local authorities have repeatedly refused to make public. That said, locals in St. John and St. James will thus have more control to drive the conversation about making sure they have safe air to breathe.
The project has already installed air monitors in key locations through the parishes, created a community watch group to monitor air readings, created and facilitated a coalition of local groups, and held community webinars to educate locals on the work and others can get involved. With so much success already, we are so excited to see what happens next.
Engage with the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC)
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Make your voice heard! Check out our new page about how to engage at the LPSC.
Decisions at the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) are generally made through a docketed process, allowing for stakeholder involvement. Just about anyone can be a stakeholder, but there is a process to get on the list. Get a quick breakdown on who is considered a stakeholder, how to intervene, interested party status, what is the service list and more! Follow us on twitter, facebook, and instagram @all4energy to get reminders about and updates from LPSC meetings. |
Who's Regulating LA's Pipelines
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Join the Alliance for an educational webinar on various pipeline regulations in Louisiana to learn about the gaps and opportunities for further regulation.
Did you know - in Louisiana, every year, dozens of landowners have their property taken by oil companies via state-approved “eminent domain” proceedings? With so many different kinds of pipelines, from interstate to intrastate, to oil or gas, as well as a whole host of regulations from water and air permits to safety inspections, it can be easy to lose sight of which agency is overseeing what. Unfortunately, this can lead to gaps in the regulatory approval process which savvy oil executives are all too familiar with. Oil companies are increasingly abusive of this power, boldly taking private land and getting away with it. Without specific regulations protecting property owners, we are losing Louisiana. No other state allows these abuses of power. Learn more about who's regulating LA's Pipelines, how The Alliance is getting involved, and how you can get involved! |
Health Impact Assessment
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The Alliance has partnered with the Louisiana Public Health Institute to conduct a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to study the health effects of the various energy generation options for New Orleans.
Entergy New Orleans’ Michoud plant, located in New Orleans East neighborhood, is aging and moving toward retirement. Through funding by the Health Impact Project, a program of Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we are working with a variety of stakeholders to create a transparent and engaging process to gain a better understanding of how energy generation in our city affects the health of our citizens. More information on the progress of the HIA can be found HERE, and will be updated as we conduct the study in 2015. |
Social Media
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Knowledge is power. We aim to educate consumers on their rights and the true cost of energy. We use our Facebook page, twitter account and instagram to communicate with our members on a regular basis. The Alliance blog, The Watchdog, is updated weekly and we publish a monthly e-newsletter, which highlights current and local information on energy.
Our Executive Director hosts a local radio news program on WHIV FM 102.3 & WBOK 1230 AM called The People's Power Hour weekly on Tuesdays from 1-2pm CST. We table at popular festivals, including the Freret Street Market, Earth Day Festival and at Pelicans games. |
We are proud of our community outreach and youth education programs. We have a curriculum for elementary school age children and a bike generator that literally forces you to work harder to light a traditional incandescent bulb.
Energy Education Program
In 2012, the Alliance started an education program focused on teaching young students about energy sources and conservation. The goal of our program is to introduce young students to the concepts of clean vs. dirty and renewable vs. non-renewable energy sources, and to instill a sense of why energy conservation is important for all of our futures.
In its first three months, our program reached 12 classrooms and 360 students, ranging from kindergarten to 3rd grade. A group of Tulane student volunteers help to design and run the workshops. We have also brought our educational materials to public libraries, after-school programs, and festivals.
A goal of our program is to bring in fun, interactive, hands-on activities to classrooms to get young students excited about science. For our workshop, our interns helped us build a stationary bicycle that can generate electricity by spinning a motor. Using the energy bike, students experience the effort that goes into powering different types of light bulbs and appliances. The bike generator works the same way as a wind turbine—using mechanical energy to spin a magnet and create electricity. The energy bike allows students to delve in to this concept and understand experientially how energy production works. The DIY-bike generator was such a huge success that the Alliance recently purchased a professional version from a supplier to use in our workshops and outreach!
Our Education Program is run by Energy Wise: a non-profit serving all Louisianans, with a focus on underserved communities, providing residential energy retrofits for tenants, low income families, homes with poor solar potential, and people with moderate-to-low credit scores. Through DIY workshops, presentations to community groups, and building retrofits at schools, churches and nonprofits, Energy Wise is transforming the energy profile of Louisiana.
Learn more here.
Learn more here.
Consumer Advocacy
Every state has a Public Service Commission (PSC) which has regulatory authority over utilities. Louisiana is one of 3 states (along with Georgia, and Idaho) in the US that does not have a consumer advocate designated and funded by the government.
Why are consumer advocates so important?
Consumer advocates represent consumers' interests and protect the consumers' rights at utility rate and regulatory hearings. Additionally, many consumer advocates run education and outreach programs that help consumers stay informed about energy issues that affect them.
The Alliance for Affordable Energy is the only dedicated consumer advocate in Louisiana for utility customers
The Alliance works to advance ratepayers interests and protect their rights at the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) and City Council of New Orleans (CNO). From the start, we have advanced a philosophy that there is no conflict between lower energy costs and lower pollution, between good jobs and regulation, or between serving the public interest and making a reasonable profit. The Alliance for Affordable Energy is committed to promoting a new vision for energy policy in Louisiana, from an “energy state” to a “clean energy” leader in the South.
To learn more about the work AAE does at the regulatory level check out these other pages on our website:
National Guide to Consumer Advocates
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NASUCA is an association of 55 consumer advocates in 43 states and the District of Columbia, Barbados, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.
NASUCA’s members are designated by the laws of their respective jurisdictions to represent the interests of utility consumers before state and federal regulators and in the courts. The AAE has compiled this list of consumer advocates by state. Louisiana is one of 3 states (along with Georgia and Idaho) in the US that does not have a consumer advocate designated and funded by the government. *Consumer advocate's not designated and funded by the government are bolded. Consumer Advocates by State
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