Alliance for Affordable Energy

Gulf south for a green new deal: a regional group of organizations advocating for climate justice and a just transition away from an extractive fossil fuel economy. The Alliance participates in the Louisiana hub as a financial lead, and other leadership roles, including policy, action, and communications. As a financial lead, we work with others in the region to fundraise for money to support the network's efforts, received dollars from the regional community controlled fund, and in the Louisiana hub, draft budgets, manage distributions of funds to network members in the form of pass through grants, and other expenses for the hub. The network fundraises both as independent state hubs, and collaboratively as a region. Funds raised by the region make up the community controlled fund, which is managed by project south, and directed by the financial leads of each of the participating states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and puerto rico). Financial leads decide together how these dollars will be allocated across the region, and then each state hub conducts participatory grant makig to further distribute the funds. Each year the states and the region develop budgets. Funds are used for programming, advocacy, training, research, events, movement infractructure, and capacity building

Clean Energy: we worked with our coalition of organizations for a renewable portfolio standard, conducting education and outreach with community members around the city, holding webinars, filing comments and letters to the council about the benefits of renewables for new orleans. Entergy new orleans latest integrated resource plan shows that the most cost effective portfolios to provide power to their customers is with clean, renewable Energy. Finally, we were involved in bringing hundreds of new megawatts of clean and Affordable wind Energy online to serve north Louisiana, and an additional 200mw of new solar in the state.

Energy efficiency: Energy efficiency programs continued to grow across the state, including new orleans. We advocated for more robust programs and rules at the public service commission and the new orleans city council. Over the course of this year we advocated for efficiency to play a foundational role in the state's Energy mix through rate cases and formal dockets. We continued to work with partners in the housing and health sectors to educate on the power of efficiency to reduce housing costs, improve health and comfort, and grow a clean Energy workforce. We worked with coalitions and the city of new orleans to develop a renewable and clean portfolio standard that puts efficiency first as a solution. Finally, we engaged at the Louisiana housing corporation to watchdog the weatherization assistance program for low income customers.

Consumer protection: this year we educated regulators and advocated for programs to protect ratepayers from shut-offs during the covid crisis. Through research, analyses, and applied educational advocacy efforts, we saved Louisiana rate-payers well over 40m. We pushed regulators in the region to conduct outreach meetings around the state to help individuals and organizations better understand what they are paying for through their Energy bill, and how they can take back their power. We continued our weekly radio program, the people's power hour on local community station 102.3 whiv, hosting guests each week.