‘People are hurting’: Energy access groups call for City Council to stop power shutoffs

On Monday morning, it was 56 degrees and windy outside of City Hall. That’s 16 degrees warmer than the temperature cutoff that, according to city law, prohibits Entergy from disconnecting power for New Orleans residents during the day. 

But, according to a group of energy access advocates, that policy does not do enough to keep people warm through the winter. 

“It’s cold out here, I have this big coat on and I’m freezing, so I can only imagine what people without power are feeling,” Frederick Bell Jr., a clean energy organizer with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said to the crowd. 

Bell Jr. and 20 others were gathered outside City Hall to call for the New Orleans City Council to freeze all power shutoffs beginning now through March 1, as the weather historically gets colder. Entergy New Orleans, which provides energy to more than 200,000 consumers in Orleans Parish, is partially regulated by the City Council through the Utility, Cable, Telecommunications and Technology Committee. 

According to Jesse George, New Orleans policy director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the current policy leaves a lot of room for vulnerable populations to be left in the cold.

“There are a lot of people who fall through the cracks with that policy in place, whether it’s 41 degrees or 40 degrees, there’s not a huge difference inside your home, especially for people like the elderly or disabled people,” George said. 

Precedent for the council pushing for Entergy to reduce shutoffs has come during major fluctuations in energy prices, including high costs in 2022, and extenuating circumstances such as the pandemic.

On Friday, Dec. 5, the City Council sent an email reminding ratepayers of their rights per the council’s customer bill of services, which lays out the temperature limits that Entergy has to follow. The regulation bans electric or gas services from being disconnected during extreme weather; cutoff temperatures are 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 32 degrees during the nighttime. 

According to George, recent price spikes ought to justify similar action from the council, with a three-year high in prices over the past few weeks. 

The Utilities Committee is hosting a joint meeting with the Climate Change and Sustainability Committee on Wednesday, Dec. 10, where advocates hope a shutoff ban will be passed.  

Porscha Maxine, an Uptown resident who works in the service industry, spoke about her firsthand experience with power shutoffs in 2020 and 2023 due to bureaucratic difficulties with Entergy.

“Entergy will give irregular bills and then say you’re behind and even when I’ve had the money to pay it, there will be last minute fees or extra fees when you’re disconnected,” Maxine said. 

“Most of the people I know [who have faced a shutdown] have a job, if not multiple, so the fact that this is coming up just as often for my neighbors that are underemployed or unemployed is obscene.” 

The shutoffs, Maxine said, affect even those with a steady income who are attempting to make payments on time. She pointed to the story of a friend — a single mother with a baby who lives on the West Bank — who had her power turned off for a payment that was only fifteen minutes late. 

“It just feels so arbitrary, her amount was something like $400 in one go, but it’s 15 minutes late, and you’re telling me it’s still gonna get shut off?” Maxine said. “She has a baby. And she had to be on the phone for half a business day [to get it fixed].” 

Councilmember JP Morrell, council president and chair of the Utilities Committee, had no additional comment beyond the bill of services reminder. A spokesperson for Entergy was unable to immediately respond to a request for comment from Verite News. 

Pastor Gregory Manning, who recently made an unsuccessful bid to unseat Morrell, spoke about the compounding nature of power shutoffs.

“People are hurting right now,” Manning told Verite News. “At my church, we distribute over 4,000 pounds of food each week. People line up two hours earlier just to get food, and so to have food insecurity compounded with utility burdens is just not a viable way for people to survive.”