Entergy Under Fire For Pocketing Maintenance Funds, Hiring Actors For Hearings, Renewable Faceplant
At a June 28 meeting, New Orleans regulators put the city’s public utility Entergy in the hot seat over increasing power outages and slow progress on clean energy goals. City councilmembers showed little patience for the embattled company, which currently is under investigation for its role in paying actors to show support for its proposed $210 million natural gas power plant, approved by the council on March 8. Arguments for approving the controversial natural gas plant included the dubious claim that it would offer more reliable electricity for the city, although the project would not include upgrades to the faulty power grid. In addition, a recent study found that oil and gas infrastructure like this plant are leaking 60 percent more globe-warming methane than previously thought, boosting the climate change impact of natural gas.
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Entergy was compelled to turn over thousands of pages of documents and emails to the city council on June 13. Reviewed by The Lens, these emails cast doubt that Entergy was oblivious to the extent of the astroturfing campaign and its financial support of it. Astroturfing — secretly paying for efforts to create the illusion of grassroots support — is nothing new but is often difficult to prove. In this case, Entergy admits to its role in hiring the public relations contractor The Hawthorn Group — which has a history of astroturfing for energy companies — but denies it authorized Hawthorn to subcontract work to Crowds on Demand, the company that paid actors to attend and testify at public meetings in support of the gas plant. The emails don’t directly prove that Entergy authorized hiring the paid actors. However, they do erode Entergy’s claim it was unaware of the measures The Hawthorn Group was taking on its behalf. An email from Hawthorn’s president Suzanne Hammelman to Yolanda Pollard, Entergy communications manager, includes prices for recruited supporters.
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Councilmember Jason Williams, who voted in favor of the natural gas plant, suggested Entergy’s counsel Brian Guillot avoid speaking in platitudes. Yet Guilliot repeated the claim he had just made that Entergy is pro-environment and not against clean energy. Williams responded, “That is like me saying I’m a good father but I haven’t seen my kids for four years,” before stepping away from the meeting briefly and seemingly out of frustration.
As Melonie Stewart, Entergy’s vice president of customer service, offered an explanation for rising power outages in the city, she placed blame on aging transmission equipment, squirrels on the lines, wind, and falling trees. Bringing up squirrels struck a chord with many attending the meeting. “We ain’t the only people on the planet with squirrels,” Councilmember Jay Banks said. “The squirrels eating the power lines is Entergy’s version of the ‘dog ate my homework,’” said Danil Faust, a former candidate for the state legislature who was the first to uncover the paid actor scheme. Faust was described as a “radical leftist” in an email to Hammelman by Crowds on Demand.
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/07/02/astroturf-paid-actors-new-orleans-natural-gas-entergy-missed-renewable-goals-power-outages