‘They make it so hard to do the right thing’: New Orleanians battle exorbitant energy bills with few alternatives

Darlene Jones sweeps the sidewalk in front of her home in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, on 12 November 2023. Photograph: Giancarlo D'Agostaro/The Guardian

Darlene Jones spends most of her time holed up in the bedroom to minimize the amount of electricity she uses to cool and light her home in downtown New Orleans. Air seeps out from the doors and windows of the 1890 one-bedroom shotgun house – and through the bashed-up floorboards and ceiling that Jones cannot afford to repair. She has wrapped foam around the leaky air-conditioning pipes, and taped handwritten signs on the front door above the metal letterbox that read “Please close the slot”.

“I don’t want to lose the little cool air there is,” said Jones, 68, a former college administrator who was left unable to work after a violent carjacking. “Climate change is for real but the utility is robbing us blind.”