Yes, as Louisiana gets hit with snow for the first time in seven years, the majority of us begrudgingly crawled out of our nice warm beds and dragged ourselves into work, but many had to do that without heat. Entergy’s outage map was reporting nearly 100,000 customers without power this morning. Nearly 100,000 households woke up able to see their own breath in their kitchens as they tried to figure out a way to make coffee prior to taking a cold shower.
The worst part of this is that it most likely comes as little surprise to many Louisiana residents. Entergy New Orleans actually has so many power outages the City Council has literally ordered an investigation into the root cause, yet simply glancing around at our transmission lines and utility poles should give you a pretty good guess.
What’s even more infuriating than being forced to pay for a service that is unreliable, is that Entergy New Orleans is looking to charge their New Orleans customers quite a bit more for a new power plant that we most likely will never use. While ‘if the power goes out all of the time, we obviously need a new power plant’ is a great talking point, lack of available power is not the problem. Why should our bills go up when our service is going down?
But on days like this, where it’s just above freezing, a power outage isn’t just an inconvenience. Plummeting indoor temperatures pose significant health risks for our elderly, our youth and various other vulnerable populations. Traffic light outages only serve to increase the dangers of slick roadways, and reduced visibility combined with a lack of street lights suddenly makes our pedestrian friendly city, far from it. Louisiana residents deserve better!
If you’re in Orleans Parish, tell your Councilmember. All other parishes can call their Public Service Commissioner!
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