New budget energy policy to drop LA power rates

Contrary to the fevered fantasy of leftist catastrophic anthropogenic global warming acolytes, the federal government’s shift to a realistic energy policy will result in lower overall payments for power by Louisianans if not also greater economic development.

 The recent federal budget bill that made profound changes in taxing and spending policy included among other things the imminent end of subsidies for wind and solar sources, effective elimination of fuel standards for vehicles that will encourage fossil fuel usage, and the ability of individual states to leverage those standards higher. This of course has created a panic attack on the left, with a particularly useless Democrat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission pontificating that the discouragement of the renewable sources will doom consumers to higher rates, under the facile assumption that the lower costs utilities paid for renewable generation will go higher without taxpayers footing part of the bill and that markets don’t prevail.

 

Of course, in that view there’s no consideration of those very taxpayers that include Louisianans who as a result of the budget reconciliation will see both permanently lower taxes and a reallocation of spending that better matches the genuine priorities of the people. And the supposition of higher-priced retail prices differs from assessments of energy policy experts generally, who note historical data show a distinct positive correlation between electricity pricing and proportion of power generated by solar and wind sources. They also note the inherent dishonesty in having hidden in subsidies the extra amount that citizens pay for greater wind and solar usage rather than out in the open in the form of higher charged rates.

Mapping case may add to LA policy leadership

It looks increasingly likely that Louisiana again will lead the policy-making field, this time through a decision on the U.S. Supreme Court case Louisiana v. Callais.

 For decades seldom has the state participated in ground-breaking policy, far more often lagging the field. But that trend has started to reverse as of late, beginning in 2022 when Louisiana became the first state to require age verification to access sexually-explicit web sites. Other states followed and some of their laws, similar to Louisiana’s, met with court challenges. But, last month the Court rejected one setting a precedent for other.

 

Then in 2023 the state, pioneering with a few others, passed a law that required segregating of borrowing in public libraries of books with adult thematic material. Library systems had to set up procedures to distinguish minors and for those books to require parental assent for minors to access these.

Put LA public defense board out of misery

This space earlier this year mused whether Louisiana needed a board of appointees to oversee public defense. It appears recent events  reveal it doesn’t really matter as it seems largely irrelevant.

This week, the Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board met to decide whether five of the state’s district public defenders had lost their jobs at the end of last month. The Board itself had just turned a year old, having been overhauled with many of its functions transferred to the state public defender Remy Starns. However, it retained its powers over financial matters, including contracting with DPDs.

Starns, originally appointed by Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards then reappointed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, after its new formation that saw several new members as a result of its changeover, brought to the Board a changed salary plan designed to address the challenging funding environment inherent to the state’s method of providing public defense, largely dependent as it is on contingent local sources. It rejected that, because some substantial salary cuts would have occurred.

Unwise to have LA pay for weight loss benefit

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry made the right move for taxpayers when he vetoed a line in a bill that could have spiraled out of cost control because some active and retired state employees and public school teachers eat too much.

HB 463 was one of several money bills passed by the Legislature, this one being the annual ancillary expenses allotted to parts of state government spending from internal service or enterprise funds. He struck a single line item from it, that which would have compelled state employee coverage of semaglutide medication that can encourage weight loss as long as it didn’t cost the state money for the fiscal year.

Some took to social media to decry the decision not to cover drugs like Rybelus, Wegovy, and Ozempic. The Office of Group Benefits could have worked a deal from the manufacturers to allow for a free year’s worth, and with Louisiana having one of the highest obesity rates in the country, with that condition bringing all sorts of health problems this benefit could reduce health plan costs down the line which would translate soon into lower rates charged clients than would be otherwise.