The Latest News and Updates
Jan 9, 2020
What will be the energy future of New Orleans?
Join us in our fight for an energy future that is equitable, renewable, and sustainable! Click to view Press Release What will be the energy future of New Orleans? The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice answers this question every day by fighting back against the injustice of Entergy’s polluting and costly gas-fired power plant near predominantly African American and Vietnamese American neighborhoods. We have been in homes, community centers and churches raising awareness of the scientific facts about the gas plant: more than 1 million pounds of toxic air pollution, including particulate matter that can cause severe lung and heart damage, more than 700 million pounds of greenhouse gases that would worsen the climate crisis, and groundwater withdrawals, which create the risks of accelerated land subsidence and impairment of flood control structure. We are now in court. Our coalition of community-based organizations and environmental groups won a court judgment that threw out the New Orleans City Council’s approval of the Entergy gas plant application for violations of the Louisiana Open Meetings Law. The case involves the national scandal of Entergy using paid actors to pose as concerned residents and show sham support of the gas plant. There is undisputed evidence that the City Council’s approval was unfairly biased in favor of Entergy’s gas plant and disregarded renewable energy alternatives. The City Council and Entergy have teamed up to appeal the court judgment. Our fight is not over! Join us in our fight for an energy future that is equitable, renewable, and sustainable. We are asking you to support us by making a donation so we can continue to fight. ...
Dec 9, 2019
Climate Change Solutions
Climate Change Solutions: The Imperative Call to Action Dr. Beverly Wright, founding executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) and Dr. Robert D. Bullard, distinguished professor, Texas Southern University co-convened the 7th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference in New Orleans, November 13-16, 2019. This year’s conference theme, “Climate Change Solutions: The Imperative to Action,” was especially relevant given the severity of environmental and climate challenges facing the people and places in the vulnerable U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast region where the vast majority of HBCUs are located. Over three hundred youth, students, faculty, staff, faith, environmental and climate justice leaders from twenty-five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), twenty-three predominately white institutions (PWIs), and a representatives from five HBCU Gulf Coast Partner Communities (New Orleans, LA, Houston, TX, Gulfport, MS, Mobile, AL, and Pensacola, FL) gathered in New Orleans to participate in discussions about building just, fair and equitable climate solutions to the crisis facing frontline communities. Each year student attendees have an opportunity to present their research as well as interact with community members experiencing environmental exposure and negative impacts of climate change. Click here for more. Student Power Point Presentations ...
Sep 30, 2019
New Orleans Residents Put Forward Climate Solutions That Achieve Equity
Climate Action Equity Report. For more than 25 years, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice has provided research and education that builds the capacities of African American communities who are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards and the climate crisis to engage in policy and system change. We provide specialized skills training for men and women to become certified experts on environmental, health and safety and start new careers with an 85 percent job placement rate. We also provide opportunities for HBCU students to increase their knowledge and contribute to climate change research and solutions. One of these opportunities, I’d like briefly announce, is the upcoming 7th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference that is hosted by the HBCU Climate Change Consortium and will take place at the New Orleans Marriott, November 13th through 16th. When staff from the City of New Orleans and the Greater New Orleans Foundation asked the Center to partner with them in a project that ties together action to achieve equity with action on climate change I said, "You can count on us!" The Climate Action Equity Project has been a rewarding partnership. The Center built the engine for the project, which is a collaboration that brings together community leaders working to achieve equity and local residents with expertise in areas relevant to climate action. The Center reached out to community-based organizations in each council district to nominate people to serve on the Advisory Group. The organizations nominated incredible community leaders who they know to be responsible and committed to improving our city. Also serving on the Advisory Group are local residents, who are innovating their diverse fields of expertise in energy, transportation, waste reduction, as well as workforce and entrepreneurial development. Since March 2018, the Center facilitated the work of the Advisory Group to identify the inequities people face in our city every day and develop steps for overcoming them that also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to the climate crisis. In October 2018, we held seven community forums to introduce more residents to the concept of equitable climate action and received their recommendations. Today, the Advisory Group, the City of New Orleans, Greater New Orleans Foundation, and the Center offer something of vital importance to our city, which is entitled Taking Steps Together on Equity & Climate Change: A Report by and for New Orleanians. In this report, which is co-authored by the Center, we present the treasure trove of recommendations developed by the Advisory Group and provided by residents at the community forums. These recommendations are not pie-in-the-sky. They are practical and actionable for addressing the needs we have in our neighborhoods for achieving equity and in our city for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Each recommendation requires partnerships and collaborations with key stakeholders across the city. In short, achieving equity and taking responsible action on climate change require all of us to work together. When you think of climate change you may not think of a community-based organization or a job developer as having solutions. But, they do. In fact, we all do. Take for example, the inequities we have in the city with low-income households struggling to pay electric bills that are the second highest energy cost burden in the nation, as well as significant unemployment and underemployment among African Americans. In the report, we provide recommendations from community-based organizations and job developers to bring bills down and grow jobs and small businesses through policies and initiatives that expand home weatherization and energy efficiency programs as well as invest in community solar projects in neighborhoods where both renters and homeowners can benefit. Click on the link to view the report and think of at least one step you can take for equitable climate action in New Orleans. Climate Action Equity Report....
Sep 27, 2019
Students Raising Awareness about Sea Levels
Students Raising Awareness about Sea Level Rise and Flooding Along the Gulf Coast For over twenty-seven years, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice has been instrumental in engaging high school and college students in environmental justice and climate change training and advocacy. The Bezos Family Foundation and Students Rebuild funded the... Click here for more.
Sep 25, 2019
Voiceless Documentary
Voiceless Documentary - Dedicated to the Pensacola, FL communities of Wedgewood, Rolling Hills, and Olive Heights.
Sep 20, 2019
Free Environmental Career Worker Training
Free Environmental Career Worker Training - January 21 - April 9, 2020 Receive free environmental job training and certification Click here for more.
Sep 1, 2019
Cutting Entergy Bills and Growing Green Jobs
A Community Plan for Renewable Energy Saturday, September 7, 2019 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Broadmoor Community Church 2021 S. Dupre Street Five things you’ll get -- A look at a community plan for New Orleans to go 100% renewable energy by the year 2040 that cuts Entergy bills and grows green jobs Info on renewable energy opportunities for local DBEs and entrepreneurs Examples of how states and cities are cutting electric utility bills with renewable energy portfolio standards A review of the proposals made to the City Council for a renewable energy portfolio standard Practice with designing a renewable energy portfolio standard that meets local needs Click here for more....
Aug 15, 2019
Equitable and Just National Climate Platform
https://ajustclimate.org/ For the first time, a group 100 environmental justice and national environmental groups have come together to advance an equitable and just national climate platform. This historic, bold platform -- which can be found at AJustClimate.org -- highlights priority outcomes for a national climate policy agenda. The platform advances the goals of economic, racial, climate and environmental justice to improve the public health and wellbeing of all communities, while tackling the climate crisis. Systemic racism and injustice has left economically disadvantaged communities, tribal communities and communities of color exposed to the highest levels of toxic pollution, and the most vulnerable people subject to more powerful storms and floods, more intense heat waves, more deadly wildfires, more devastating droughts, and other threats from the climate crisis threats. These communities also have the least resources to prepare for and recover from the effects of the climate crisis, including more extreme weather. Compounding the pollution burden in these communities is growing income inequality, which is dividing our nation. The wealthiest few amass vast resources while leaving most people behind. This is a critical moment to define bold and equitable climate solutions that address the legacy of environmental racism, while rebuilding our economy in ways that work for everyone, not just the wealthy few. This historic platform lays out our shared vision, our goals, and our commitment to work together as partners and allies so that we can -- and will -- achieve these goals together. By advancing this bold platform together, we hope that it will draw support from presidential candidates and policy-makers from all parties, and other partners and allies. We propose to: Enact solutions that address the legacy of pollution: Ambitious climate solutions must acknowledge and address the legacy of pollution and other environmental harms in overburdened communities. Make justice and equity a priority: Unless justice and equity are central aspects of our climate agenda, the inequality of the carbon-based economy will be replicated as we build a new clean and renewable energy economy. Reduce greenhouse gas pollution: Meeting U.S. climate goals must also reduce locally harmful air pollution that disproportionately affects low-income areas and communities of color. Transition to a clean energy future: Investments must be made to extend high-quality clean energy jobs, health protections, job-training programs, and fair and equitable working conditions to all communities, especially those with high underemployment and unemployment and those historically reliant on fossil fuel energy. Reduce transportation pollution: Transportation is now the nation’s largest source of climate pollution today. We must rebuild our transportation system so that it is fair, equitable, clean, and improves people’s mobility as it cleans up the air. Rebuild infrastructure and housing: They must better withstand the harmful impacts of climate change in all communities. Demand a just national climate agenda: It must provide sustainable investment for mitigation and adaptation that will not impose an undue social and economic cost to overburdened and vulnerable communities. Be on a pathway to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius: The United States must commit to ambitious emission reduction goals and contribute equitably to global efforts to stabilize the climate system by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To be successful, we must firmly be on this path by 2030. ...
Jul 16, 2019
Energy Future New Orleans (EFNO) Submits Community Led Plan for Renewable Portfolio Standard Energy Plan in the Gulf South
New Orleans, LA - July 16, 2019 - On the heels of what many expected to be an historic weather event in the City of New Orleans, a coalition of local and national groups and businesses submitted a sweeping proposal aimed at transforming the current energy system in the city to 100% renewable energy by 2040. Hurricane Barry served as a reminder that resilience is intertwined with the fate of New Orleans, and that renewable energy as well as equity are the keys to its long term survival. This innovative proposal represents not only a first for New Orleans, but also for the Gulf South, and was developed through community input to ensure equity, reduced cost of electric bills, and lasting environmental benefits. The Coalition filed their proposal with the Clerk of Council on Monday, July 15th as a part of a formal City Council proceeding. The Resilient and Renewable Portfolio Standard Portfolio Standard (R-RPS), developed by the Energy Future New Orleans coalition, establishes a comprehensive path for the City of New Orleans to reach 100% renewable energy by the year 2040, and to reach that target by addressing the greatest challenges faced by residents. Among these challenges are some of the highest energy costs in the country for low and moderate income households, and the ever present demands of the city to be resilient during frequent extreme weather events and power outages. Energy poverty is already a problem in New Orleans, with some customers paying as much as 23% of their income on Entergy bills. Climate change is expected to exacerbate these costs as extreme weather events push temperatures higher. Click Here to Continue Reading...
Jun 17, 2019
Judge Griffin Rules With the People of New Orleans, Says City Council Did Not Substantially Comply with Open Meetings Law Press Release
NEW ORLEANS, June 14, 2019 – At Orleans Parish Civil District Court today, Judge Piper Griffin ruled in favor of local groups and residents who sued the New Orleans City Council for violating the Open Meetings Law. The ruling focused on public meetings in which people were shut out prior to the Council voting in favor of Entergy’s application to build a new, polluting gas plant in New Orleans East. Judge Griffin determined that the Council did not substantially comply with the Open Meetings Law and its policy for ensuring that citizens’ voices are heard. She also found that Entergy’s use of paid actors in the Council meetings “undermined” the Open Meetings Law. Her decision delivers a victory to residents and local groups who sued the City Council for denying basic rights to a fair process and open meetings when the Council approved the Entergy gas plant in 2018. Click Here to Continue Reading...