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State energy projects face pauses, cuts
a massive federally sup- President Joe Biden’s adminis- in early October. Not long after, Trump administration could hit brakes Louisiana, ported direct air capture project, tration to bring technologies like another list started circulating that well as carbon-capture projects direct air capture to market. And proposed a second round of cuts, Entergy, Shell and Honeywell, the potential cuts come at the same which include at least two univeron direct air capture, carbon plants asbyamong others. time an unusual coalition of rural sity projects in Louisiana that have
BY SAM KARLIN
broader movement that may result in hundreds of millions of dollars in Louisiana energy projects being The Trump administration has cut. The funding pause comes as a quietly paused funding for initiatives at LSU and the University of list of proposed cuts by the DepartLouisiana at Lafayette that were ment of Energy has circulated in studying direct air capture and Washington, D.C. Its targets insolar energy employment, amid a clude Project Cypress in southwest Staff writer
It’s not yet clear whether the projects will ultimately be cut, and the Department of Energy declined to answer questions for this story about the list’s authenticity. But the changes raise questions about whether Louisiana will continue to be a beneficiary of a national movement under former
conservatives and environmentalists have banded together to push back against a wave of projects by petrochemical companies to store CO2 deep underground all across the state. The Energy Department had already announced a round of $8 billion in funding cuts to clean energy
FARM TO CITY
reported having their funding paused. In all, the various cuts, pauses and proposed trims have led to an enduring state of uncertainty in parts of Louisiana’s burgeoning clean energy economy ever since
ä See CUTS, page 6A
Officials had to fill city’s 2010 budget gap New Orleans set furloughs, froze hiring, raised property taxes BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer
under supervision, “continues to be abusive to everyone she has contact with in this case.” A few weeks later, Baker tapped out, recusing herself over actions she found “so outrageous and extreme that the court fears for the safety of herself, her staff, and anyone else that Ms. Diamond perceives to be
New Orleans officials are working to remedy a $160 million deficit and make payroll through the end of the year, after the state auditor last month uncovered months of botched budgeting. But it’s not the first time the city has been here. Political watchers and former officials point to 2010 as a precedent for what the city may face, as leaders weigh potential cuts to services and furloughs. That year saw newly installed Mayor Mitch Landrieu institute a slew of cost-saving measures to resolve Landrieu a nearly $100 million deficit he inherited from Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration out of a $460 million budget. Landrieu enacted 11 days of furloughs on city workers and a hiring freeze across all departments. Those cuts spurred harsh complaints from unions representing the city’s firefighters and police officers, but allowed Landrieu to successfully balance the budget and, by the time he left office eight years later, set millions aside as an emergency reserve. “The city finds itself in a difficult situation and we shouldn’t be here — however, it is a manageable problem,” said Landrieu in an interview on Friday. As a sitting member of the City Council, Mayor-elect Helena Moreno has already been tasked with resolving a major financial crisis that she must face as mayor once inaugurated in January. Landrieu, too, entered into office as the city stared down serious financial trouble. As the city reeled from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the worst national recession since the 1930s and a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Landrieu’s administration quickly discovered that the city was tens of millions of dollars in the red. Addressing the city’s residents in his first State of the City address just two months into his term, Landrieu blamed his predecessor for the budget gap, describing the budget passed by Nagin as “mismanaged from the top to bottom.” He blamed “massive overtime payments that have “exploded the city’s budget.” (A failure to budget for overtime this year is one of the city’s biggest budgeting gaffes, the state auditor found last month.)
ä See COURT, page 5A
ä See BUDGET, page 3A
STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE
Kelly Cahill, of yardbirds Farm, walks past ducks she is raising in Lower Coast Algiers, an area on the outskirts of New Orleans that feels utterly pastoral, but is only a 15-minute drive from downtown.
Remote corner of New Orleans being transformed into hub BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer
When Kelly Cahill isn’t bartending, she tends to around 300 birds on her poultry farm — not in rural Louisiana, but just a short drive from the French Quarter. The only poultry farmer with her own processing shop in New Orleans, Cahill runs a one-woman show in Lower Coast Algiers, raising, slaughtering and selling the pasture-raised chickens and ducks to farmers markets and restaurants around the city. “It’s what I’ll do forever,” Cahill said on an October afternoon,
peering into a mobile coop with 100 young ducks. Cahill, a 34-year-old Lafayette native, first got into farming through a Craigslist job posting for a vegetable farm over a decade ago. The vocation connected her to her food in a way she hadn’t experienced before, she recalled, and she’s been farming ever since. Through her business, Yardbirds, Cahill rears and processes birds on land owned by Cheryl Nunes and Annie Moore, a farmer couple who seven years ago
ä See FARM, page 3A
Annie Moore, of River Queen Greens in Lower Coast Algiers, pulls off her boots in the barn.
Family Court complaints spark unusual uproar Child abuse allegations, misconduct complaints create clash among judges; now politicians are involved
Court Judge Pam Baker found Katherine Diamond had harassed her ex-husband, posted online about custody matters against a court order and failed to pay child support, attorney Rouge held a mother of twins in fees or the house note. BY JOHN SIMERMAN contempt of court and ordered The judge tacked on another Staff writer months of jail time if she didn’t $50,000 in legal fees for Diamond In August 2023, a volatile di- pay thousands to her ex-hus- to pay her ex-husband and wrote that Diamond, who has rarely vorce and custody case took band’s attorney. a turn when a judge in Baton After a four-day trial, Family seen her kids in years and only
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Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Metro ...........................1B Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
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