NEW ORLEANS -- Dawn Hebert says she was at the city council committee meeting yesterday and watched as her neighbors were shut out -- even though there were empty seats inside.
"We're just very disappointed that we weren't even heard," said Hebert, who lives in New Orleans East.
She says she has a problem with residents not being heard and a problem with the power plant Entergy wants to build. She's not alone.
Beth Galante, who opposes the plant, said, "We shouldn't be raising people's bills for a power plant we don't need, we should be doing the opposite, looking for ways to lower people's bills."
Beth says this plant isn't needed because it won't fix the power outages that we're having in the city.
Last year, Entergy New Orleans was directed to investigate power outages. This is what they found:
From June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017, 56 percent of power outages happened during fair weather and nearly 1,000 of those outages were the result of electrical equipment failure.
The resolution found "(Entergy New Orleans') equipment is aging" and "needs replacement."
But Entergy's CEO, Charles Rice, still says the city of New Orleans needs this power plant.
"We want to make sure we have the best grid possible and in order to have the best grid possible we need this plant approved," he said.
Rice also says bills will go down, but wouldn't answer any questions about when customers could see a cheaper bill. He said he "can't put a number on that."
This project is a $210 million dollar power plant. New Orleans residents will have to foot the bill 100 percent. That means another fee added on your Entergy bill for three decades.
Hebert says she wants city council members to think about ratepayers before they vote.
"Something else can be done and Entergy just isn't doing it," she said.