Gulf South Coalition calls for ‘intersectional’ infrastructure investment

13th September 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

“Just because you give somebody solar and a battery, doesn’t mean people can afford to stay in their homes,” Keya Chatterjee told reporters. Chatterjee runs U.S. Climate Action Network, a network of nearly 200 organizations focused on equitably addressing the climate crisis. She made the remark during a conference call ten days after Hurricane Ida tossed southern Louisiana. Gulf South leaders used the call to describe some of the challenges in recovery efforts, the need for substantial investment in climate-resilient infrastructure, and the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative.

The Justice40 Initiative pledges to allocate 40 percent of the benefits of federal climate investments to “disadvantaged communities” while tracking progress toward that goal through an Environmental Justice Scorecard. For Chatterjee, the Justice40 Initiative is a “down payment” that will help the United States overhaul all its infrastructure.

“We need to keep people in their homes with clean water, with clean air, with access to a food supply, with access to a stable job. That is what this bill does,” Chatterjee said of the budget reconciliation process happening with the bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed in early August. She called the bill’s approach to tackling the country’s infrastructure “intersectional,” pointing out that for society to function optimally, people’s needs for everything from childcare to transportation must be met.

Jessica Dandridge, executive director of the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans, concurs with Grover. “Investing in people is the one way we can get to a disaster recovery that is equitable and sustainable,” she said. Dandridge rode out the storm in New Orleans, but was forced to leave in the aftermath because her home had no power. Nearly two weeks after Ida, Dandridge remains displaced.

Her experience coupled with the heavy flooding in parishes outside of Orleans highlights the lack of equity in the recovery, she said. Dandridge called out Entergy for its failures and insisted that the company move into renewable energy systems.

“Last year, they made $1.4 million dollars in profit,” Dandridge said of Entergy, reminding listeners that the company has used ratepayers’ dollars for an unpopular gas-powered plant. She urged constituents to push for home solar programs and for expanding the company’s energy storage capacity along with its portfolio of power sources. These measures, she said, would enable residents to minimize the time they go without electricity in the wake of outages as well as diminishing Entergy’s overall environmental impact.

The Lower Ninth Ward has a significant number of homes with rooftop solar installations. Jennifer Crosslin, a Mississippi-based organizer with the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, noted that setting up battery storage and micro-grids would help residents keep their power on after major outages.

“These have to be solutions organized and planned and implemented by local folks,” Crosslin said.

That benchmark, however, is often not being met. The American Association of Blacks in Energy and its partners released a report this week revealing the lack of racial and gender diversity in renewable energy jobs. The report, titled “Help Wanted: Diversity in Clean Energy,” found that in 49 of the 50 states, women account for less than 30 percent of the renewable energy workforce. Further, the field is dominated by non-Hispanic whites, who occupy 60 percent of the positions.

Paula Grover, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, one of the coalition members, described the infrastructure bill as “a generational investment in our energy system,” and urged Congress to seize the opportunity to build a more equitable economy.

Yet water infrastructure represents another critical problem. “Almost every single water utility in southeast Louisiana during Hurricane Ida failed at some point,” Dandridge said. “What does the water quality look like? We do not know because there is nobody in the state of Louisiana requiring them to provide reports on water quality treatment,” she told listeners.

“Since 1977, federal funding in water infrastructure has been cut by 82 percent. We are literally asking for communities to fail and see flooding at massive rates, especially at this time, because our government has not invested in them,” Dandridge said. She pointed to a combination of green and gray infrastructure as a solution to this problem.

Flooding is only one risk arising from water system failures, however. Another is the dumping of untreated wastewater directly into the Mississippi River, Dandridge said. Prior to Ida’s landfall, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued an emergency order enabling water treatment systems to take measures such as emergency discharges of wastewater. The New Orleans Sewage and Water Board told The Louisiana Weekly via email that it had taken two emergency actions, one of which included diverting wastewater into the Mississippi River on August 31. The same day, the treatment plant discharged into Bayou Bienvenue. The Board said these measures were done to prevent sewage from backing up into homes and the plant from sustaining damage.

One of the tools for dealing with the country’s decrepit water infrastructure is the Water Act of 2021. The bill, co-sponsored by Representatives Ro Khanna of California, Brenda Lawrence of Michigan, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, would invest $35 billion into the facilities required in communities across the United States to ensure safe and readily accessible drinking water.

With severe weather events battering the country from coast to coast, the panelists addressed the possibility of managed retreat from vulnerable areas. Colette Pichon-Battle, head of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, noted that the first federal funds for this kind of relocation went to tribal communities in southern Louisiana. But Chief August Creppel of the United Houma Nation described the ironies and challenges facing his 19,000 constituents. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has a trailer parked in the tribal office’s parking lot. Thanks to a satellite connection, people from Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes are able to apply for federal relief there regardless of whether they have a tribal affiliation. For the chief, this is ironic since the tribe lacks the federal recognition that would enable it to apply for federal grants and support.

Nonetheless, he is proud of the tribe’s solidarity efforts. “We’re ahead of what the government is doing. Our office is Ground Zero to get out into Lafourche and Terrebonne,” Creppel explained, describing how supplies come to the United Houma Nation office to be distributed to different areas of the two parishes. “We are coordinating food distribution with churches,” Creppel said, expressing thanks for the support that has come from houses of worship and private companies.

Along with his gratitude, Chief Creppel also acknowledged the serious hardships facing residents. Armed with experience from his work as a firefighter, he noted that when power does get restored, houses with damaged wiring can catch fire.

“FEMA only pays for you to evacuate for so long. They want people to go back to these houses that are unlivable. No running water, no electricity, no sewer. They wouldn’t let people live like this,” Creppel told The Louisiana Weekly.

This article originally published in the September 13, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.