Latest news with #JeffLandry
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Governor of Louisiana to Join Equinor, Edison Chouest Offshore for Christening of U.S.-Built Service Operations Vessel ECO Liberty
NEW ORLEANS, June 27, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind 1, will join Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, First Lady Sharon Landry, and host Edison Chouest Offshore for a christening ceremony for the ECO Liberty on Saturday, June 28, at 11 am at the Port of New Orleans. The American-made Service Operations Vessel (SOV) was built by more than 500 Louisianans and showcases the Gulf Coast's growing manufacturing role in supporting U.S. offshore wind projects. The ECO Liberty is made of American steel and includes components from several Gulf Coast states. The 262-foot hybrid-powered vessel will soon depart for New York, where it will be homeported at the newly redeveloped South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The ECO Liberty will be deployed to support ongoing marine construction in the lease area and eventually serve as the residence for Empire Wind workers offshore. WHAT: Christening Ceremony for the ECO Liberty WHO: Governor Jeff Landry Louisiana First Lady Sharon Landry, Vessel Godmother Representatives from Edison Chouest Offshore and Equinor WHEN: Saturday, June 28, at 11 am WHERE: Port of New Orleans, 1350 Port of New Orleans Pl, New Orleans, LA 70130 View source version on Contacts Media is invited to attend the christening event and should RSVP to:David SchoetzSenior Communications Manager, Equinor Renewables Americas475-216-1942, dscho@ Sam SpieglemanStrategic Communications Assistant, PRG303-880-6328,
Business Wire
20 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Governor of Louisiana to Join Equinor, Edison Chouest Offshore for Christening of U.S.-Built Service Operations Vessel ECO Liberty
NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind 1, will join Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, First Lady Sharon Landry, and host Edison Chouest Offshore for a christening ceremony for the ECO Liberty on Saturday, June 28, at 11 am at the Port of New Orleans. The American-made Service Operations Vessel (SOV) was built by more than 500 Louisianans and showcases the Gulf Coast's growing manufacturing role in supporting U.S. offshore wind projects. The ECO Liberty is made of American steel and includes components from several Gulf Coast states. The 262-foot hybrid-powered vessel will soon depart for New York, where it will be homeported at the newly redeveloped South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The ECO Liberty will be deployed to support ongoing marine construction in the lease area and eventually serve as the residence for Empire Wind workers offshore.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Red states push religion in public schools. Supreme Court is their end game.
The creeping Christian nationalist plot to force religion into public schools ‒ calculated to provoke legal challenges that could allow the conservative U.S. Supreme Court supermajority to obliterate part of our First Amendment ‒ took one step forward and one step backward in the same week recently. For hard-right Republican state governors eager to upend America's long legacy of religious freedom, both steps probably feel like they point toward an eventual victory. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law on June 21 legislation mandating that public school classrooms display the Ten Commandments starting this fall. This is the same Greg Abbott who, just a day later, vetoed part of a different bill that would have accessed $450 million in federal funding for summer lunch programs for low-income children. Abbott prefers forcing religion down the throats of the children of Texas to actually feeding them. In Louisiana, on June 20, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a November ruling that found a similar law violated the opening line of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, known as the establishment clause, that prohibits our government from forcing religion on us in public places. Opinion: Louisiana's Ten Commandments push shows GOP doesn't care about the Constitution Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who signed the legislation last June, vowed to appeal. And of course he did. Landry gave up the game a year ago when he said, "I can't wait to be sued" for his Ten Commandments mandate. Unconstitutional legislation and legal challenges set the path. The Supreme Court is the destination. In Arkansas, seven families filed a federal lawsuit on June 11 seeking to block that state's version of the Ten Commandments mandate in public school classrooms. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is supposed to take effect in August. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU state chapters, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation are now representing families opposing the mandates in Louisiana and Arkansas. And they have vowed to take Texas to court. Rachel Laser, who leads Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told me these Ten Commandments mandates are "an effort to turn America into a country that prefers European Christians over a country that's dedicated to a pluralistic democracy and equality for all." She said the mandate proponents in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas are designed to "raise a new generation of Americans who are indoctrinated in that Christian nationalist lie that America is a country for European Christians," all in an effort to "get the Supreme Court to allow the Christianization" of public schools. Opinion: Threats against judges nearly doubled under Trump. Republicans blame the victim. Annie Laurie Gaylor, cofounder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, pointed to the First Commandment, taken by some literally, quoting God as saying, "You shall have no other gods before me." "No U.S. state or government ‒ whether Texas, Louisiana or Arkansas ‒ has the right to tell a captive audience of schoolchildren how many gods to worship, which gods to worship, or whether to worship any gods at all!" Gaylor told me. "The language of the First Commandment is the antithesis of our First Amendment." This is settled law that Christian nationalists want to unsettle. The Supreme Court in 1947 ruled that the Constitution's establishment clause applies to both the federal government and state governments. In a 1980 ruling, justices struck down a Kentucky law mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Our nation's highest court ruled the same way in a similar Kentucky case in 2005. Opinion: Supreme Court reminds Trump to follow the law, signaling concern that he won't So what's changed? The Supreme Court. It tilted rightward in a supermajority in 2020 due to three nominations by Donald Trump during his first term as president. But what do Americans want? The Pew Research Center, in an analysis released June 23, cited its 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, which surveyed 37,000 American adults and found that 52% favored allowing teacher-led prayer in public schools while 46% opposed it. That was driven by strong support among Christians, especially evangelicals, matched by strong opposition from Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists and agnostics. And opinions varied when the survey was broken down, state by state, and when Americans were asked whether the prayers were to God with no specific mention of religion, or if Jesus was mentioned. Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on people, power and policies in the time of Trump from columnist Chris Brennan. Get it delivered to your inbox. Three-quarters of the adults surveyed in Arkansas and Louisiana favored prayer in public schools that specifically referred to Jesus, while 61% backed that in Texas. And that's why the very First Amendment in our Constitution ‒ written as a list of priorities ‒ was crafted to protect Americans from the religious overreach of their government. It was intended to keep politicians like Abbott from force-feeding us his system of values that favors performative religious gestures over real-world caring for children. Now we wait until this fight reaches the Supreme Court, where the justices will have to show us whether they revere our constitutional freedoms more than a mandate that our own Founding Fathers would have certainly rejected. Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas 10 Commandments law is about baiting Supreme Court | Opinion
West Australian
a day ago
- Business
- West Australian
US states redefine gas as green energy
Louisiana is the latest US state to redefine natural gas as green energy under a new law - even though it's a fossil fuel that emits planet-warming greenhouse gases. Three other states led by Republicans— Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee— have passed similar legislation. In some Democratic-led states, there have been efforts to phase out natural gas. Cities in New York and California have moved to ban natural gas hook-ups in new buildings, though some of these policies have been successfully challenged in court. President Donald Trump has signed a spate of executive orders promoting oil, gas and coal, which all warm the planet when burned to produce electricity. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a major booster of the state's petrochemical industry, says the new law "sets the tone for the future" and will help the state "pursue energy independence and dominance." Environmental groups say these new laws are part of a broader push by petrochemical industry-backed groups to rebrand fossil fuel as climate friendly and head off efforts to shift electric grids to renewables, such as solar and wind. It's "pure Orwellian greenwashing," said Tim Donaghy, research director of Greenpeace USA. Globally, the term green energy is used to refer to energy derived from natural sources that do not pollute — solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal energy. Louisiana's law could enable funds slated for state clean energy initiatives to be used to support natural gas. Natural gas has been the top source of electricity generation in the United States for about a decade, since surpassing coal. Apart from coal, everything else is better than gas for the planet, said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist. Building new gas plants locks in fossil fuel emissions for decades, he added. The law's author, Republican Jacob Landry, runs an oil and gas industry consulting firm. "I don't think it's anything crippling to wind or solar, but you got to realise the wind don't blow all the time and the sun don't shine every day," Landry said. The legislation "is saying we need to prioritise what keeps the grid energised," he added. According to Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, these laws are part of a long-running disinformation campaign by the gas industry to cast their product as clean to protect their businesses and prevent a shift to renewable energy sources that will address the climate crisis. "The goal is to elbow out competition from renewables from wind and solar, and in some cases preempt localities' ability to choose to pursue 100 per cent truly clean energy," Anderson said. The European Union has previously designated natural gas and nuclear as sustainable, a move that Greenpeace and the Austrian government are suing over.
Perth Now
a day ago
- Business
- Perth Now
US states redefine gas as green energy
Louisiana is the latest US state to redefine natural gas as green energy under a new law - even though it's a fossil fuel that emits planet-warming greenhouse gases. Three other states led by Republicans— Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee— have passed similar legislation. In some Democratic-led states, there have been efforts to phase out natural gas. Cities in New York and California have moved to ban natural gas hook-ups in new buildings, though some of these policies have been successfully challenged in court. President Donald Trump has signed a spate of executive orders promoting oil, gas and coal, which all warm the planet when burned to produce electricity. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a major booster of the state's petrochemical industry, says the new law "sets the tone for the future" and will help the state "pursue energy independence and dominance." Environmental groups say these new laws are part of a broader push by petrochemical industry-backed groups to rebrand fossil fuel as climate friendly and head off efforts to shift electric grids to renewables, such as solar and wind. It's "pure Orwellian greenwashing," said Tim Donaghy, research director of Greenpeace USA. Globally, the term green energy is used to refer to energy derived from natural sources that do not pollute — solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal energy. Louisiana's law could enable funds slated for state clean energy initiatives to be used to support natural gas. Natural gas has been the top source of electricity generation in the United States for about a decade, since surpassing coal. Apart from coal, everything else is better than gas for the planet, said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist. Building new gas plants locks in fossil fuel emissions for decades, he added. The law's author, Republican Jacob Landry, runs an oil and gas industry consulting firm. "I don't think it's anything crippling to wind or solar, but you got to realise the wind don't blow all the time and the sun don't shine every day," Landry said. The legislation "is saying we need to prioritise what keeps the grid energised," he added. According to Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, these laws are part of a long-running disinformation campaign by the gas industry to cast their product as clean to protect their businesses and prevent a shift to renewable energy sources that will address the climate crisis. "The goal is to elbow out competition from renewables from wind and solar, and in some cases preempt localities' ability to choose to pursue 100 per cent truly clean energy," Anderson said. The European Union has previously designated natural gas and nuclear as sustainable, a move that Greenpeace and the Austrian government are suing over.
