Louisiana Republicans Hold Climate Policy Hostage Over Abortion

In the center of hurricane season, Republicans in Louisiana are blocking funding that might bolster flood safety in New Orleans—all as a result of the town is resisting efforts to criminalize abortion.

Last week, the Louisiana State Bond Commission voted 7-6 to disclaim a line of credit score meant to assist New Orleans construct infrastructure for drainage pumps which might be a vital element of the town’s plans to adapt to local weather change. This is the second time the Commission has voted to disclaim the road of credit score; E&E News reported each denials had been issued whereas the town was beneath energetic flood watches. The vote comes on the urging of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who referred to as New Orleans’s resistance to the state-wide abortion bans “an open defiance of the will of the people of Louisiana.”

In early July, New Orleans’s City Council unanimously passed a resolution that might prohibit the town from utilizing municipal funds to hunt out, catalog, or punish folks receiving abortions or docs offering care. Louisiana is considered one of 13 states that had a “trigger law”—insurance policies designed to mechanically go into impact—in place earlier than the Supreme Court choice overturning Roe v. Wade. One of the bans, handed simply days earlier than the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization choice, has no exceptions for rape or incest and mandates punishments for abortion suppliers that may embrace jail sentences of as much as 10 years, with arduous labor, and/or fines wherever from $10,000 to $100,000.

In a letter despatched to the Bond Commission in July, Landry requested the Commission to defer any functions from New Orleans for any varieties of initiatives, writing that “a parish or municipality should not benefit from the hard-working taxpayers of this State while ignoring laws validly enacted by the people through their representatives.” At Thursday’s listening to, Landry doubled down, asking New Orleans officers if they’ve thought-about rescinding the decision. “You can’t vow and solemnly swear to uphold the laws on one hand, and on the other, stand up and say, I’m not going to uphold that one,” he mentioned. At the assembly Thursday, the Bond Commission ordered Louisiana metropolis officers to look at September’s assembly to speak extra in regards to the decision.

Frequent flooding in New Orleans is exacerbated by the town’s getting old infrastructure. The mission the Bond Commission denied the credit score line for would spend $39 million to construct a brand new energy plant to energy pumps to take away rainwater from the town throughout storms. Many of those pumps are at present powered by a lot older techniques, together with some generators first put in within the 1910s.

“The torrential rains have become much more frequent, and flooding that used to be caused by a tropical storm or a hurricane we are now seeing with just 3 to 4 inches of rain in no time whatsoever,” Paul Rainwater, a lobbyist with the town’s Sewerage and Water Board, which might oversee the mission, informed E&E. “When a warning goes out that we have a thunderstorm going through, we could have flash flooding, and in some parts of the city, you may see 2 to 3 feet of water.” (Rainwater described himself to the Commission in Thursday’s listening to defending the mission as “pro-life, Catholic and Republican.”)

Landry, who has been eyeing a run for governor in 2023, has been an outspoken opponent of federal and state local weather insurance policies, in addition to a local weather science denier. Landry was on the forefront of a problem from a gaggle of Republican attorneys common to problem the Biden administration’s use of the social price of carbon, which the Supreme Court rejected in a uncommon environmental win in late May. He has repeatedly referred to as the scientific consensus on human-caused local weather change “a hoax” and claimed that sea ranges haven’t risen in any respect. He has additionally shared misinformation round local weather change on Twitter. The oil and gasoline trade has been considered one of Landry’s top campaign contributors; based on the marketing campaign finance web site OpenSecrets, the trade has given more than $850,000 to Landry over the course of his political profession.

Louisiana state senator Jimmy Harris, a Democrat who represents New Orleans, informed E&E that the ability station Landry opposes is “a pro-life project.”

“This project is to help us to where we don’t have to drown,” he mentioned. “Don’t tell me you love me but you’re not willing to keep me from drowning. I don’t want to hear that from nobody.”