Entergy New Orleans executives sent a letter to the New Orleans City Council that says there could be "expensive litigation" brought against the council by the power company if the council votes to reinstate a $1 million fine over numerous power outages in 2016 and 2017.
The council issued the fine in 2019. Entergy sued, claiming the council was penalizing the utility for violating rules that the council had not yet defined. New Orleans Civil District Court Judge Rachael Johnson agreed, ruling in Entergy's favor and vacating the fine.
The council since has created rules that set minimum expectations and obligations of the power utility. But a vote by the council to reopen the process that led to the 2019 fine has Entergy threatening new legal action.
"The proposed procedural schedule will impose significant litigation costs from the Council (particularly if its Advisors continue to bill hundreds of thousands of dollars to this docket), ENO, and, ultimately, those costs will be bom by our customers," Entergy Vice President of Regulatory and Public Affairs Courtney Nicholson wrote to the council. "Devoting limited resources to assembling and submitting 'additional evidence regarding the amount of the penalty,' which penalty, again, has been set aside as unlawful, would not serve the public interest in any way."
