The Alliance Demands Immediate Retraction Of False And Baseless Accusations

We have avoided dignifying these ridiculous claims because they have no merit. For over forty years, The Alliance has worked as the state’s only residential consumer advocate and utility watchdog organization, and in the process saved Louisiana and New Orleans ratepayers billions of dollars that would have otherwise been spent on unnecessary rate increases and other costs on their monthly electric bills. 

The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate published this column — which is, notably, not a letter-to-the-editor or in any way denoted as an opinion column that does not reflect the views of the paper or notifies readers that its contents have not been fact-checked — without contacting The Alliance. If they had, we would have shared the following:

• Unlike the Pelican Institute and Mr. Kiley, The Alliance makes all of its funding sources publicly available on its website through our 990 tax returns. You can see them for yourself here.
• The Alliance has been a grantee of an U.S. based entity called the Energy Foundation or U.S. Energy Foundation for well over a decade. 
• In 2019 Energy Foundation split into two entities: 1) the U.S. Energy Foundation and 2) The Energy Foundation, also referred to as Energy Foundation China. 
• When that split occurred, Energy Foundation China kept the original Employer Identification Number (EIN) and the U.S. Energy Foundation was created as a new entity with a new IRS identity and numbers. 
• The original Energy Foundation EIN tracks back to grants we received before 2019. 
• Grants from EF we received since 2019 are now associated with the new U.S. Energy Foundation EIN. 
• We have never received funding from an entity referred to as “Energy Foundation China,” nor would we ever accept funding from that entity.
• The Alliance actually spoke in favor of Commissioner Skrmetta’s proposed rulemaking and has been proactive in working with LPSC staff in drafting the rule to ensure it fits within constitutional perimeters and does not unduly limit the ability of all Louisianans to participate in the intervention process. 

We at The Alliance have always been strong proponents of transparency in regulatory proceedings, and have never sought to hide our involvement, our points of view, or our goals at the Public Service Commission or anywhere else. And unlike the Pelican Institute and Mr. Riley, we certainly have not used our platform to baselessly accuse those who do not share our point of view of being foreign agents.

This article and these tactics are intended to distract from what is really happening today in Louisiana, and which interests are being served, all at a time when people are struggling to afford skyrocketing energy bills. While The Alliance has been fighting tirelessly to ensure that corporate monopoly utilities like Entergy cannot force their poorest customers to bear the costs and impacts of infrastructure meant to serve data centers and other projects that will only benefit some of the world’s other richest corporations, organizations like the Pelican Institute are seeking to discredit us and distract the people and policymakers of this state from what’s truly at stake.

As such, we demand an immediate retraction and public correction of the record from the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate.

Media Contact: Emma Meyerkopf, Communications Manager, 504-229-4643, emma@all4energy.org