As you may know, the incoming Moreno administration has notified many city employees that they will not be retained as part of cuts made in the name of balancing the municipal budget. Unfortunately, this includes much of the energy and climate staff with the New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability, which will be functionally dissolved in the coming days. This is happening despite recommendations made by transition team members representing climate expertise officially recommending that Mayor-Elect Moreno bolster ORS, and potentially elevate the Office into a full city department or cabinet-level agency.

Many of us feel that this is a profound misstep—ORS plays a crucial role in much of the work being done across New Orleans that is needed to ensure this place can remain home to people for generations to come. The idea that the work, expertise, relationships, and institutional memory that has been grown and rebuilt since the office was last dismantled (at the beginning of the Cantrell Administration) can simply be reassigned and redistributed across City Hall while downsizing staff is nonsensical.

Unfortunately, it seems that in the rush to identify "first 100-day wins,” a shortsighted decision was made that sets back work required for New Orleans to thrive over the next 100 years.

It’s not too late to fix this, however. As such, we hope to deliver a letter to Mayor-Elect Moreno upon her taking office, calling on her to reverse course, protect ORS, and direct the City to make its best effort to bring back the incredible people who were working there until very recently.

If you are a New Orleans based organization or individual who shares our concerns, please sign on here by 12pm on Monday, Jan. 12. And please feel free to share this message with others.

Thank you, and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns at jackson@all4energy.org.

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Mayor Helena Moreno  

City Hall, Second Floor    

1300 Perdido Street    

New Orleans, LA 70112    

CC: Joseph I. Giarrusso III, CAO

CM J.P. Morrell, President, At-Large

CM Matt Willard, At-Large

CM Aimee McCarron, District A

CM Lesli Harris, District B

CM Freddie King, District C

CM Eugene Green, District D

CM Jason Hughes, District E

Mayor Moreno –

As members of the Transition Team’s Climate and Sustainability Subcommittee, leading New Orleans environmental and climate justice advocates, and concerned residents of New Orleans, we write with deep concern over the news regarding terminations of staff within the Office of Resilience and Sustainability (ORS).

The City of New Orleans is on the frontline of the climate crisis. At a time when the state and federal government are unraveling decades of work aimed at ensuring that people can continue to live and work in New Orleans for generations to come, ORS is an indispensable leader and partner for on-going efforts to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. As you know, the Office has secured over $150 million in private and federal funding since 2023, and in doing so, has supported vital work across the city.

We know, Mayor Moreno, that as the champion on these issues on the council for the past eight years, you recognize the existential threats presented by climate change to our city. As you assume your duties as Mayor, your leadership on climate action will be more important than ever. Having one of your first acts as Mayor being the functional dismantling of ORS will not only diminish that legacy, but put the city on a dangerous course.

We understand that the city faces dire financial challenges. But we must be clear-eyed about the stakes: whatever savings might be realized in cutting ORS staff now would be dwarfed by the exponential costs that New Orleans will incur in failing to properly address its growing climate vulnerabilities. 

Our city, and your administration, must prioritize adaptation, mitigation, resilience-building, and other work currently spearheaded by ORS. We understand that your intention is to embed climate and resilience work across City Hall–but we worry that this approach misunderstands the central role that ORS currently plays and the nature of the work and institutional knowledge it holds. We fear that moving forward in this way would set New Orleans back years in terms of building resources and momentum, not to mention put the city at risk of losing tens of millions of dollars in grants and other support.

New Orleans is on the verge of updating its Climate Action Plan in accordance with our city’s membership with the C40 Cities, a process in which ORS was intended to play a central role. ORS was also in the midst of implementing the city’s Energy Benchmarking Ordinance–which you championed and will help reduce energy costs for building owners across the city–as well as conducting an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions–crucial to protecting public health and advancing implementation of the City’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.

The essential nature of this work is why the Climate and Sustainability Subcommittee of your Transition Team recommended that you elevate and grow ORS. And it is also why many of our organizations have worked with ORS in recent weeks to begin securing additional funding support, so the office could continue its work without undermining efforts to repair the city’s budget shortfall.

We recognize the challenges our City faces, and we will work with you and the City Council in whatever ways we can to address them. We also understand that some cuts may be unavoidable–but we feel strongly that moving forward with the announced ORS personnel and program cuts would be a very costly mistake for New Orleans, damaging essential relationships with key funders and disrupting crucial, on-going work. 

We, the undersigned, strongly urge that you reconsider this decision and offer our support in identifying alternative solutions that retain as much of the existing capacity of ORS as possible.

Thank you,

Jackson Voss, Alliance for Affordable Energy, Transition Team Transition Team’s Climate & Sustainability Subcommittee Member

Brett Davis, Grounds Krewe