NEW ORLEANS-New Orleans' City Council prepared Thursday to vote on a settlement that would let a utility giant go ahead with a new power plant project despite a scandal arising from the use of paid actors to provide phony support for the project.
Entergy New Orleans, which is part of Entergy Corp., agreed to pay a $5 million penalty for the use of secretly paid supporters at public hearings, but that is contingent on the council not revoking its prior approval of the gas-fired power plant.
Opponents of the plant angrily opposed the settlement at a committee hearing last week. And they returned for Thursday's full council meeting, filing dozens of seats and dominating nearly two hours of testimony. Opponents said they are worried about rate increases that will follow construction of the estimated $210 million plant. They also said they feared emissions from the gas-fired plant in eastern New Orleans will cause health problems.
There were a few supporters of the plant, which Entergy has said will be used to provide power at times of peak demand. "It does not work out well for us when we do not have reliable power," said city resident Derrick Martin.
Supporters were outnumbered by a series of opponents. Rev. Greg Manning compared Entergy's campaign in support of the plant to a "war" on the African-American and Vietnamese-American communities of eastern New Orleans,
"We do not want the gas plant anywhere in our neighborhood," one Vietnamese woman, speaking through an interpreter, told the council.
The project won council approval last March. But, revelations that contractors hired by Entergy New Orleans to promote the plant had hired phony supporters to attend and speak at public hearings gave new life to the plant's opponents.
The settlement includes a requirement that Entergy New Orleans management undergo ethics training. It calls for Entergy to submit emissions data on the plant to the council and post it online.
It also calls for Entergy to work with the city to provide more reliable power for the city's troubled street drainage and drinking water system. The New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, which operates those systems, has suffered myriad problems including outages in parts of its own antiquated power system. Loss of power to drainage pumps has led to street flooding, and loss of power for the drinking water pumping system has led to low water pressure and periodic "boil water" orders for parts of the city.