A major blackout disrupted life in New Orleans on Sunday when the region’s electrical grid operator, MISO, issued a last-minute order to cut power. Nearly 100,000 residents and businesses were plunged into darkness with just three minutes’ notice. The action was described as a “last resort” to avoid a total grid collapse, but critics say this was entirely preventable.
The failure came amid warnings from both the Trump administration and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which has flagged the MISO grid as increasingly vulnerable—largely due to the shift away from reliable energy sources like coal and gas in favor of wind and solar.
“This administration will not sit back and allow dangerous energy subtraction policies threaten the resiliency of our grid,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright just days before the blackout. He had ordered MISO to keep the J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan running to help offset grid instability.
What went wrong?
According to local reports and energy officials, the power crisis was triggered by a combination of issues:
- A planned maintenance shutdown of one Entergy generator.
- The unexpected failure of a second generator.
- A spike in demand from a heatwave that surpassed forecasts.
- Lack of backup capacity due to the region’s growing reliance on renewable energy.
As MISO scrambled to avoid a cascading blackout, it issued a forced outage directive—cutting electricity to parts of the New Orleans metro area. Entergy, the utility serving the region, complied with little warning, leaving homes and businesses without power for several hours.
“How does this happen?” asked New Orleans City Council member Joe Giarrusso. “There are lots of questions that need answering.”
A predictable failure
While Sunday’s outage stunned locals, it didn’t surprise energy analysts or federal officials. In December 2024, NERC flagged MISO’s service area as one of four major U.S. grid regions at elevated risk for blackouts in 2025. The reason? A wave of coal plant retirements, delayed renewable buildouts, and inadequate battery storage.
“MISO’s capacity resource turnover continues to occur with coal unit contributions being primarily replaced by solar, wind, and battery facilities,” NERC warned. The agency said that grid operators are dealing with serious uncertainty, as installation delays and retirements outpace new dependable supply.
For critics of the previous administration’s energy policies, Sunday’s failure is exactly what they feared. “This is the cost of green virtue signaling,” said one energy consultant. “They shut down baseload power while praying the sun and wind will cooperate. That’s not a grid—it’s a gamble.”
Trump’s energy team responds
Energy Secretary Wright emphasized that President Trump’s administration is working to reverse the trends that caused the crisis. “Under this president’s leadership, we are prioritizing American energy independence and reliability over ideology,” Wright said.
The Trump administration has made restoring grid stability a top priority. That includes halting further plant retirements, expediting approvals for natural gas infrastructure, and expanding nuclear investment. Just last week, the Department of Energy began reviewing subsidies for coal-fired plants deemed essential to grid integrity.
Local backlash brewing
Residents aren’t satisfied with vague explanations. Neither New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office nor the Louisiana Department of Energy offered public comment, and Entergy has yet to provide a full breakdown of the failure.
Meanwhile, state regulators are demanding accountability. Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis said he was still trying to verify which utility operated the failed second generator and promised a full review of emergency protocols.
While power was restored within hours, the disruption came during a holiday weekend—and it’s not the last New Orleans may see.
As temperatures rise this summer and demand surges again, one question remains: Will this blue city keep betting on fragile renewables, or heed the warnings before the next blackout hits?
