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Louisiana plays a large role in the US's energy economy. It is both the highest energy consuming state (per capita) and the 8th largest energy producing state in the US. Louisiana is also the fourth highest producer of natural gas (7% of the US's total natural gas production) and has 8% of the US's natural gas reserves. The state’s 17 oil refineries enable the capacity to refine 3.3 million barrels of crude oil per day, which is 1/5 of the nation's total refining capacity. Louisiana also exports a considerable amount of energy resources. The New Orleans port alone handled 1/5 of the US's coal exports in 2018, and the Sabine Pass Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal exported 22% of the US's natural gas exports in 2017.

Though Louisiana is one of the last 12 states in the US that have yet to produce a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and currently generates only 1.8% of its electricity from renewable energy resources, the state has the potential to contribute significantly to the US's renewable energy economy. The state has considerable potential for geothermal energy and its wind resources have been estimated at 1,100 gigawatt hours of electricity per year. Louisiana's well-developed forestry and agricultural industries also have substantial promise as biomass energy resources. Though, as of yet, the state has not taken measures to develop and capitalize on these potential energy assets.

New Orleans is unique in that its electricity utility is regulated at the city instead of the state level. And this is a difference makes a difference, given that the city can plan and implement an RPS of its own, in lieu of a statewide standard. This process has recently been initiated. Energy Future New Orleans Coalition drafted a Resilient and Renewable Portfolio Standard (R-RPS) and submitted it for approval by the City Council on June 15, 2019. As of 2014, 57% of the city’s electricity was generated from Entergy’s nuclear power plants, 18% from natural gas plants, 4% from coal-fired plants, and the city sourced remaining 21% from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator from an assortment of resources. The latest draft of the proposed R-RPS includes a goal of achieving 100% carbon neutrality by 2040.

I am interested in the Macro scale and the macro effects evident at a city-scale level. I remember visiting New Orleans in 2016 and vividly remember seeing several signs with a large 'No' symbol drawn and the text  "neighbors not tourists" printed on the sign. Recently, as part of my research into New Orleans, I stumbled on this piece by the Guardian on how short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb are leading to gentrification in New Orleans. Highlighted in the article is how several Airbnb hosts do not reside on the listed premises. I remember the place we stayed, as we were a large party, having a 617 prefix number.  The prefix stood out as I knew the code 617 represented Boston and was curious what someone with ties to Boston doing in New Orleans as a host. In a similar vein, the article also highlights the problem of absentee hosts, hosts who acquire property for the sole purpose of setting up the property as an Airbnb site.

To tackle the problem, one councilwoman passed a law that required any Airbnb hosts in residential zones to have a homestead exemption verifying they live on site. In this case, a city-wide measure was taken and passed into law affecting the micro. It is common to have one host having several properties in different residential areas in New Orleans. From a technical standpoint, it could be viewed that Airbnb as technology is developed and presented as a scalable product. With no limits to reproducibility. Meanwhile, real-life discontinuities exist in the form of such homestead laws. It is impossible to live in more than one homestead at the same time. In other words, the concept of the human is not scalable.
Likewise, neither is cultural heritage. The city of New Orleans positions its self as a city with great cultural heritage. It is through this heritage that they seek to draw more and more tourists. How do cities think of scaling up successful initiatives and how do they navigate the political, social, ecological, or economic entanglements. At what point is downscaling necessary? Is culture scalable?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/13/new-orleans-airbnb-trem…

I am currently a Ph.D. student interested in exploring the entanglements of scale, especially in the context of environmental sensing.  My primary research seeks to engage in discourse around the value of scalability that is presented as inherent in computation. While the term scale-up is almost synonymous with computation, sustainability; on the other hand, is known as a problem of scale. Take for example, the discourse on climate change where the actions required to combat climate change requires interventions at different scales. In this context, demanding changes at individual scales while no corresponding changes happen at larger scales would not yield much.

In looking at New Orleans, I came across a video on IoT cameras developed by Cisco, the networking giant. What struck me other than the apparent rise of surveillance capitalism was the narrative of one of the police officers highlighted in the video. The officer mentions that it is not feasible for the city to place police officers on every corner. In the context of scale, the police officer is implying that cameras are useful as they extend the police officer's ability to surveil the city. In other words, cameras and the networks help scale up the police officer, making it possible for them to cover a larger scale than before.

One of the police officers, in the video, also mentions that New Orleans is a tourist and hospitable town. Which brings up the question at any given period, what scale of visitors can New Orleans support without stretching the city's resources? Several other cities in the world have made efforts to limit visitors, in order not stretch city resources. The recent crisis at Mount Everest is an excellent example of what happens when resources are stretched to accommodate the increasing number of local visitors. How could something of this nature similarly impact New Orleans?

At the communication center where the video feed is analyzed, the IT manager provides reasons as to why they chose Cisco as their vendor. One of the reasons he gives was that the system is easily expandable, allowing the ability to scale out/up the network.

When it comes to energy governance, New Orleans is set apart from the rest of Louisiana, in that their utilities are regulated by the New Orleans City Council, rather than a Public Service Commission. However, the city council's ability to effectively regulate its primary energy provider, Entergy, has continually been called into question. One of the primary  critiques leveled on the council is its over-reliance on outside consultants. The New Orleans Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that "the Council’s regulatory approach and practices lacked basic controls to ensure transparency, prevent misconduct, and promote effective decision-making." This fact was made evident by Entergy's subcontracting of professional actors, feigning to be local constituents, to counter local opposition and fool the Council into supporting the construction of a new natural gas plant in New Orleans East. This scandal drew harsh criticism from members of local environmentalist community, putting pressure on the council to make appreciable changes to their extant regulatory model. In response, and at the reccomendation of the OIG, the council is currently taking steps to develop in-house, energy expertise so as to minimize their dependence on outside consultants. The council has also recently responded to the local community's demand for higher renewable energy portfolio standards, commissioning a new 90 Megawatt solar energy plant.