With tens of thousands left in the dark across Northern Louisiana, Delta Interfaith and Together Louisiana swiftly mobilized to keep their neighbors safe.

The New Orleans City Council unanimously approved the Neighborhood Power Plan - a $30 million proposal by Together New Orleans (TNO) and allies to strengthen the local power grid by installing solar batteries at over 1,600 homes, community facilities and businesses.

Funded with Entergy settlement dollars, the plan will not increase utility rates.

According to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, New Orleans Mayor Elect Helena Moreno called the endeavor "the largest single investment in community-led sustainability the city has ever made."

Demonstrating the power of organized people, Calgary Alliance for the Common Good (Calgary Alliance) packed Knox United Methodist Church with 600 people for its 2025 Mayoral Forum.

“Over the last year, we have been consulting with the members of our constituent organizations, and have heard stories about life in Calgary and what would make it better," said Rev. Kersi Bird, co-chair of the Calgary Alliance Affordable Housing Team.

Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, Together Louisiana's Community Lighthouse strategy is being recognized as a national model for disaster preparedness. Bloomberg News highlighted the initiative for "strengthening the capacity of local communities to respond to emergencies."

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most catastrophic storms in U.S. history, displacing millions and leaving many in oppressive heat without power or clean water. One of those displaced was Bianchi Hughes, who was just nine years old when she and her mother fled to Mississippi. They had to leave her father behind at a hospital that later flooded and permanently shut down after its generators failed.

Now, Hughes serves as a leader and the director of disaster relief with Together Louisiana. 

Over the last two years, faith, labor and civic institutions across Louisiana have built the largest network of solar-powered resilience hubs in the world, in partnership with the Industrial Areas Foundation.  With a fresh investment of $500,000, they launched their 17th community lighthouse. 

[Excerpts]

Two more Shreveport churches now have the financial support needed to transform themselves into solar-powered disaster shelters after a Caddo Parish Commission vote. 

The Commission at its Thursday meeting approved using $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to make Galilee Baptist Church and Willow Chute Baptist Church into "Community Lighthouses," doubling the number of solar-powered neighborhood hubs set to be operating in Shreveport in the coming year...

[Excerpt]

Climate Solution: In the Swelter of Hurricane Blackouts, Some Churches Stay Cool on Clean Power, Washington Post [pdf]

Solar-Powered 'Lighthouses' Stayed Lit for Hurricane Francine.  What Does It Mean for Bigger Storms?, Times-Picayune [pdf]

Solar 'Lighthouse' Project Underwent First Real Test in Hurricane Francine, Louisiana Illuminator [pdf]

Hurricane Francine: After-Action Report, Together New Orleans [pdf]

[Excerpt]

City consultants, the energy provider and major industries did not see how they would benefit from this project. Consultants for the city of New Orleans conducted a study in 2018 to determine the viability of community solar projects and an appropriate rate for reimbursement. But their calculations were so low that no one applied, including the Sisters of the Holy Family, who could not envision the low rate of return as financially feasible for them.

So the Sisters of the Holy Family and Together New Orleans met with the local energy provider and members of the city council, "every one of them, all seven," according to Costa, and were finally able to move the city council to vote in October 2023 for a more sustainable rate of reimbursement that would benefit the sisters and their neighbors.

Up until then, according to Bagert, "the program existed on paper, but not a single solar project had been created in New Orleans. We would be a test case. This is the only viable solar project in the South."

[Photo Credit: Kevin Fitzpatrick, Earthbeat]

Holy Family Sisters Plan 22-Acre Community Solar Project in Louisiana, Earthbeat (a project of the National Catholic Reporter)

Sec. Granholm: Community Lighthouse Resilience Hub is "testament to the power of grassroots organizations"

Together Louisiana-IAF was joined by US Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm at a celebration marking the launch of their seventh and largest Community Lighthouse Project at New Wine Christian Fellowship in LaPlace, Louisiana. 

The launch follows on the heels of a $249 Million federal investment in Louisiana to strengthen grid resilience, announced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The funding will be matched by $249 Million in locally raised funding.

[Excerpt]

The Community Lighthouse Project is equipping churches, health clinics and other community spaces with solar panels and batteries, so they don’t need to rely on grid power and faulty generators to stay open in emergencies. The nonprofit undertaking the project, Together New Orleans, ultimately wants to scatter 86 “lighthouses” throughout the state, so every resident lives within a 15-minute walk...

“We know everyone in the community within a mile or so radius that needs their breathing machine connected to electricity, or they have someone in a wheelchair or somebody that’s bed bound,” said Rev. Antoine Barriere, pastor of the Household of Faith Family Worship Church.

Bastrop Interfaith and Friends of the Land, a farmland preservation coalition, worked with local Elgin residents and landowners to defeat a 10-year Chapter 313 corporate tax abatement at the Elgin ISD School Board last night by a unanimous vote. Solar Proponents, a startup owned by an oil and gas hedge fund, would have clear-cut over 2,100 acres of trees bisected by Little Sandy Creek to build an industrial solar farm. While the community had been testifying monthly since May at the school board meetings against the project, last night was the first time the public got to hear from Solar Proponent about the project. Speakers argued the project endangered Greenbriar Community School and neighboring homes with water runoff in an area already prone to flooding with an already diminishing refuge for wildlife.

“In these past six months, we haven’t heard a single person speak in favor of this project. Compare that to more than 1100 signers of our petition to stop this project and all the comments here you have so patiently listened to since then,” said Skip Connett, a leader with Bastrop Interfaith and founder of Friends of the Land at last night’s school board meeting.

“We spoke for our communities and our trees. Our school board listened,” Connett said after the vote.

This past May, Bastrop Interfaith and Friends of the Land, one of its member institutions, opposed the initial Chapter 313 application which would have given the company a 10-year school property tax abatement from Elgin ISD. Chapter 313, Texas’s largest corporate welfare program, costs taxpayer $1Billion/year to fund these tax breaks, money which could be going to public schools.  Chapter 313’s reauthorization was killed last legislative session by Bastrop Interfaith and the Texas IAF along with allies. However, the program doesn’t expire until this December, and there has been a rush of nearly 500 applications by companies looking to get tax breaks before the deadline.

Bastrop Interfaith Commends Elgin ISD Board for Rejecting Chapter 313 Deal

Friend of the Land, Bastrop Interfaith Oppose Dogwood Creek Solar 313 Application to Elgin, Elgin Courier