The Acadiana Group of the Sierra Club strongly opposes a proposed $400 million loan to build a simple-cycle gas turbine peaker plant.
The opposition centers on the flawed 2020 Integrated Resource Plan, which the letter argues uses unreliable demand and natural gas price projections, ignores significant uncertainties in technology and environmental regulations and fails to adequately consider cost-effective alternatives like time-of-day pricing, energy efficiency programs and utility-scale battery storage.
The long-term debt associated with the SCGT plant risks locking Lafayette into obsolete technology and unnecessarily burdens ratepayers for decades. Ultimately, the Sierra Club urges the Lafayette City Council to halt the project, revisit the IRP and explore viable alternatives that prioritize ratepayer savings and adaptability to future energy demands.
ROGER PEAK
Lafayette