Health
Check out these reports, studies and guides on topics related to health and healthy environments!
Energy Efficiency | Outages | Bills & Economics | Renewables | Utility Regulation | Housing | City Resilience & Climate
Powerless in the United States
By Center for Biological Diversity, Energy & Policy Institute, BailoutWatch |
January 2023 |
American households face electricity and heating bills that have spiked beyond their ability to pay, driven by volatile global fossil gas prices, Russia’s war on Ukraine, inflation and ever-rising energy needs fueled by climate catastrophe. Meanwhile, private utilities cushion themselves from this financial blow by raising household energy bills.
As this report shows, profit-driven utilities continue to cut off families’ basic human right to electricity and heat millions of times a year while returning billions of dollars to their shareholders and executives. From 2020 to 2022, utilities in just 30 states and Washington, D.C. shutoff households over 5.7 million times. Last year more than 20% of families couldn’t afford their energy bill. The rate was 50% higher for households of color.
How does Louisiana stack up? Well we don't know because Louisiana doesn't require utilities to disclose disconnections data, even during the pandemic! We need transparency, a ban on shutoffs, and renewable & just energy.
Learn more in this report: bit.ly/PowerlessInTheUS
As this report shows, profit-driven utilities continue to cut off families’ basic human right to electricity and heat millions of times a year while returning billions of dollars to their shareholders and executives. From 2020 to 2022, utilities in just 30 states and Washington, D.C. shutoff households over 5.7 million times. Last year more than 20% of families couldn’t afford their energy bill. The rate was 50% higher for households of color.
How does Louisiana stack up? Well we don't know because Louisiana doesn't require utilities to disclose disconnections data, even during the pandemic! We need transparency, a ban on shutoffs, and renewable & just energy.
Learn more in this report: bit.ly/PowerlessInTheUS
Powerless in the Pandemic: After Bailouts, Electric Utilities' Chose Profits over People
By Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, & Christopher Kuveke, Bailout Watch |
September 2021 |
Press Release: The Center for Biological Diversity and BailoutWatch released Powerless in the Pandemic, a report showing that some of the nation’s top utilities received a collective $1.25 billion from last year’s government bailouts while shutting off families’ electric service nearly 1 million times.
The report shows that utilities wielded political power to secure beneficial tax-code changes in the CARES Act but defied calls to grant their own customers temporary relief. Instead, 16 utilities suspended or canceled electric service to nearly 1 million households between February 2020 and June 2021, leaving people without hot water, refrigeration, air conditioning and medical devices.
“It’s appalling that utility companies cut power to countless families throughout the pandemic while raking in taxpayer bailout money,” said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program. “This greedy, heartless practice hurts low-wealth communities and communities of color most of all. It needs to stop. Complicit state regulators who fail to make shutoff data public should stop cowering and start shedding light on utilities’ bad behavior.”
Other key findings:
The report shows that utilities wielded political power to secure beneficial tax-code changes in the CARES Act but defied calls to grant their own customers temporary relief. Instead, 16 utilities suspended or canceled electric service to nearly 1 million households between February 2020 and June 2021, leaving people without hot water, refrigeration, air conditioning and medical devices.
“It’s appalling that utility companies cut power to countless families throughout the pandemic while raking in taxpayer bailout money,” said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program. “This greedy, heartless practice hurts low-wealth communities and communities of color most of all. It needs to stop. Complicit state regulators who fail to make shutoff data public should stop cowering and start shedding light on utilities’ bad behavior.”
Other key findings:
- Nine companies received tax bailouts totaling $1.25 billion. It would have cost just 8.5% of that bailout total to prevent every shutoff reported.
- For what taxpayers spent bailing them out, 15 companies (all but NextEra) could have forgiven all unpaid accounts — hundreds of times over in some cases.
- A six-member Hall of Shame — NextEra Energy (parent of Florida Power & Light and others), Duke Energy, Southern Company, Dominion Energy, Exelon, and DTE Energy — perpetrated 94% of all shutoffs documented. NextEra alone accounted for nearly half. Duke Energy and DTE Energy together received $845 million, more than 75% of the tax bailout money the report identified in the utilities sector. They cut off customers’ power more than 203,000 times. Their tax bailouts provided enough unexpected revenue to forgive the underlying unpaid bills more than 150 times.
Indigenous Resistance Against Carbon
By Indigenous Environmental Network & Oil Change International |
August 2021 |
Indigenous Resistance Against Carbon seeks to uplift the work of countless Tribal Nations, Indigenous water protectors, land defenders, pipeline fighters, and many other grassroots formations who have dedicated their lives to defending the sacredness of Mother Earth and protecting their inherent rights of Indigenous sovereignty and self- determination.
In this report, they demonstrate the tangible impact these Indigenous campaigns of resistance have had in the fight against fossil fuel expansion across what is currently called Canada and the United States of America. More specifically, they quantify the metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions that have either been stopped or delayed in the past decade due to the brave actions of Indigenous land defenders. Adding up the total, Indigenous resistance has stopped or delayed greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual U.S. and Canadian emissions.
Download the report here.
In this report, they demonstrate the tangible impact these Indigenous campaigns of resistance have had in the fight against fossil fuel expansion across what is currently called Canada and the United States of America. More specifically, they quantify the metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions that have either been stopped or delayed in the past decade due to the brave actions of Indigenous land defenders. Adding up the total, Indigenous resistance has stopped or delayed greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual U.S. and Canadian emissions.
Download the report here.
AAE Consumer Protection Report
By Peter-Raymond Graffeo, Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE) |
January 2021 |
The AAE Consumer Protection Report focuses on the best and worst practices of consumer protections provided by utility companies. These protections are essential for low income and minority households that struggle to meet the economic burden of rising utility costs.
The report compares seven State’s consumer protections with what the National Consumer Law Center recommends for such protections, with a special focus on Louisiana. Specifically, the report focuses on seven consumer protections: weather, critical medical conditions, elderly and handicap, veterans, service disconnection restrictions, social service payment customers, and miscellaneous protections. Additionally, for convenience, all State consumer protections have been added to the end of each section in a chart.
After analyzing each category, AAE believes that significant reform is needed to meet the National Consumer Law Center’s base-line recommendations. Ultimately, when considering the vulnerability of many Louisiana residents, stronger protections are needed to ensure families are protected from the disproportionate economic and health impacts associated with disconnections.
Download the report here! Download the spreadsheet here.
The report compares seven State’s consumer protections with what the National Consumer Law Center recommends for such protections, with a special focus on Louisiana. Specifically, the report focuses on seven consumer protections: weather, critical medical conditions, elderly and handicap, veterans, service disconnection restrictions, social service payment customers, and miscellaneous protections. Additionally, for convenience, all State consumer protections have been added to the end of each section in a chart.
After analyzing each category, AAE believes that significant reform is needed to meet the National Consumer Law Center’s base-line recommendations. Ultimately, when considering the vulnerability of many Louisiana residents, stronger protections are needed to ensure families are protected from the disproportionate economic and health impacts associated with disconnections.
Download the report here! Download the spreadsheet here.
Gas Stoves: Health and Air Quality Impacts and Solutions
By Brady Seals & Andee Krasner |
May 2020 |
Gas stoves are likely exposing tens of millions of people to levels of indoor air pollution that would be illegal under outdoor air quality standards. Due to a lack of regulations, this problem is largely going undetected, making people more susceptible to respiratory health risks. That’s the finding of a new report released from Rocky Mountain Institute, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Mothers Out Front, and the Sierra Club.
The report, Health Effects from Gas Stove Pollution, summarizes two decades of health research, and finds that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than the air outside, due in part to nitrogen dioxide emissions and other pollutants coming from gas stoves.
The report’s key findings include:
The report, Health Effects from Gas Stove Pollution, summarizes two decades of health research, and finds that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than the air outside, due in part to nitrogen dioxide emissions and other pollutants coming from gas stoves.
The report’s key findings include:
- Gas stoves release several hazardous pollutants, notably nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.
- Homes with gas stoves have nitrogen dioxide concentrations 50 – 400% higher than homes with electric stoves. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide, even in the short term and at low levels, can cause respiratory effects.
- Children are at increased risk from illnesses associated with gas stove pollution: living in a home with a gas stove increases their risk of having asthma by 42%.
- Lower-income households may be at higher risk of exposure to gas stove pollution.
- Ventilation is important to managing the immediate risk posed by gas stove pollution, the report finds that it cannot be relied upon as the sole mitigation strategy.
Health Impact Assessment
By AAE and the Louisiana Public Healthy Institute |
June 2019 |
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a valuable tool to help guide conversations about issues that may affect public health, that might not otherwise take these issues into account. It includes unintended impacts and community engagement to ensure all stakeholders affected by an issue are given a voice.
Louisiana Public Health Institute and AAE held an HIA training session, inviting decision makers and community members to learn about the HIA process. This assessment focuses on the eventual decommissioning of Entergy New Orleans’ Michoud power plant, a natural gas plant built in the 1960s, and the siting of Michoud and any potential replacement of the power from Michoud that may have potential health effects to the communities nearby.
This will serve as a landing page for the HIA process, housing documents created to discuss the HIA. Updates will be made regularly.
Louisiana Public Health Institute and AAE held an HIA training session, inviting decision makers and community members to learn about the HIA process. This assessment focuses on the eventual decommissioning of Entergy New Orleans’ Michoud power plant, a natural gas plant built in the 1960s, and the siting of Michoud and any potential replacement of the power from Michoud that may have potential health effects to the communities nearby.
This will serve as a landing page for the HIA process, housing documents created to discuss the HIA. Updates will be made regularly.
HIA Resources
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Lights Out in the Cold | Reforming Utility Shutoff Policies as a Human Rights Matter
By the NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice Program |
March 2017 |
Access to utility services should be a universal human right. No person should live in fear that utility shutoff may leave them in a dangerous or potentially disastrous situation. This report examines the shortcomings of existing state policies, highlights the disproportionate discriminatory impact utility shutoff policies have on socially vulnerable utility customers, and calls & outlines steps for concrete action toward establishing policies that protect the well-being of all utility customers and the eventual ELIMINATION OF UTILITY DISCONNECTIONS.
These policies and protections include:
There are multiple stakeholders who may have competing interests regarding disconnection policies that must be considered when endeavoring to reform the utility system to solve the problems faced by those who experience utility disconnections. Check out the NAACP's Report, Lights out in the Cold - Reforming Utility Shutoff Policies as a Human Rights Matter to learn more about the need for uninterrupted service, the complexities of regulating utility disconnection services, and policy & program opportunities for financing to reduce and eliminate disconnections.
These policies and protections include:
- Procedural protections (second notices, notices in various languages, eliminating disconnection & reconnection fees, restrict disconnection times so the utility has employees available to reconnect utility services, etc.)
- Payment assistance (budget plans that distribute costs throughout the year, partial payments, minimums, etc.)
- Seasonal protections
- Protections for the social vulnerable
There are multiple stakeholders who may have competing interests regarding disconnection policies that must be considered when endeavoring to reform the utility system to solve the problems faced by those who experience utility disconnections. Check out the NAACP's Report, Lights out in the Cold - Reforming Utility Shutoff Policies as a Human Rights Matter to learn more about the need for uninterrupted service, the complexities of regulating utility disconnection services, and policy & program opportunities for financing to reduce and eliminate disconnections.
Preliminary Health Impact Assessment
By Olivia Brown, The Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE) |
August 2017 |
This document is intended to consolidate ideas and provide a preliminary literature review for the team that will ultimately conduct the full HIA on the potential health risks and benefits of installing solar panels and energy efficiency measures on homes and businesses in New Orleans. Its aim is to guide city leaders into making the best energy choices for their constituents based on the most favorable outcome economically, environmentally, and to the people’s collective health.
Read about the findings of Olivia's Preliminary HIA here!
Read about the findings of Olivia's Preliminary HIA here!
Danger & Opportunity: Implications of Climate Change for Louisiana
By Legislative Study Group, HCR 74 |
May 1999 |
A report for the Louisiana State Legislature to fulfill House Concurrent Resolution 74, Regular Session, 1996. This report reviews evidence for Global Climate Change from the IPCC Report and examines five areas of risk for Louisiana - extreme weather, human health, agriculture, forestry, and coastal impacts. The report outlines and examines policy solutions and actions that could reduce or mitigate this risk. While many of these solutions take a step in the right direction towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reports released more recently have raised the bar, highlighting problems with some of these ideas and suggesting better avenues to pursue. The report's focus on promoting natural gas, nuclear, and biomass energy (without limitations) are key missteps. However, many of their other suggestions including reducing overall energy demand, increasing energy efficiency, and promoting renewable energy are still viable.
A view from the 90s: Check out the report to learn about the outlook on opportunities for improvement and growth in the Energy Sector and the Study Group's conclusions and recommendations for actions to address climate related risks in Louisiana.
Downloadable PDF of report & Link to online version of report
A view from the 90s: Check out the report to learn about the outlook on opportunities for improvement and growth in the Energy Sector and the Study Group's conclusions and recommendations for actions to address climate related risks in Louisiana.
Downloadable PDF of report & Link to online version of report
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