Community Solar as Energy Reparations: Abolishing Petro-Racial Capitalism in New Orleans
American Quarterly
Co-authored by Nikki Luke and #UnequalCities Network member Nik Heynen

Excerpt: In a June 2019 interview on WHIV community radio in New Orleans, Logan Burke, executive director of the Louisiana Alliance for Affordable Energy, detailed the work underway at the New Orleans City Council to authorize community solar,1 which means “that rather than depending on the utility itself to procure renewables, a community can invest in and own solar resources and other renewable resources and reduce their bills, lock[ing] in the cost of that energy over time.” Burke identified the developments in New Orleans as a historic opportunity to bring policy innovations that work toward energy equity to the US South, as the rule is “the first community solar opportunity that anybody has seen in our region.”

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