News Release > Entergy Louisiana Advocates for More Energy Assistance for Low-Income Customers

Entergy Louisiana Advocates for More Energy Assistance for Low-Income Customers

02/29/2016

LIHEAP Action Day in Washington helps raise awareness of need

BATON ROUGE, La. – During LIHEAP Action Day March 2, Entergy Louisiana representatives and community partners will be making the case for increased funding of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The funding goal is at least $4.7 billion for 2017.

Face-to-face meetings with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill will address the need for better funding for hot-weather states through the federal program. Advocates will also highlight the current method of distributing available funds, which leaves many families in the hottest, poorest states struggling to meet basic needs such as heating and cooling costs.

Funding of LIHEAP has dropped by a third from $5.1 billion in 2009 to $3.4 billion today. This reduction limits the level of assistance available for the more than 3.8 million qualifying households in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas – the four states in which Entergy’s utility customers reside.

Restoring funding could result in an estimated $450 million in assistance, capable of helping thousands of qualifying households in Entergy’s utility service area of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In 2015, these states received an estimated $210 million from LIHEAP.  Louisiana residents received $42.2 million. Within Entergy’s service territories in Louisiana, more than 61,000 families were assisted.

“The $240 million difference reflects the magnitude of need that cannot currently be met unless Congress properly and better funds this program,” said Phillip May, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana. “Participating in LIHEAP Action Day is one of the many ways we power life for our customers, including those in need.”

Read more about Entergy’s low-income initiatives here.

Entergy Louisiana provides electric service to more than one million customers and natural gas service to nearly 93,000 customers in the greater Baton Rouge area. With operations in southern, central and northeastern Louisiana, the company is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11.5 billion and more than 13,000 employees.

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