Louisiana District 4

Louisiana, your primary election is on July 11. You have some work to do when it comes to sustainability and green energy, and we want to see your beautiful state remain a gorgeous for years to come.

Your primary is different than most states, meaning that you employ a majority vote system. This means that whichever candidate wins the majority of the vote, they win outright. If no candidate reaches that threshold, you vote again between the two top contenders. As long as you’re registered, you can vote.

Let’s take a look at your candidates!

President

We haven't reviewed any presidential candidates yet, but check back soon!

Louisiana Senators

Antoine Pierce
Weak Click to read about our ranking scales

Antoine Pierce is a community activist and founder of Better Boys Initiative, Inc.

Pierce mentions ensuring environmental protections and subsidizing renewable energy resources, but otherwise doesn’t have an extensive platform.


Dartanyon Williams
Weak Click to read about our ranking scales

Dartanyon Williams is a businessman, author, and pastor.

Williams has some good stances on improving transportation – which will also decrease harmful emission output into our atmosphere. He has a good grasp on how disastrous climate change is in regard to gulf coast and the issues that will arise as devastating natural disasters continue to hit the coast. He wants to address coastal erosion and the next steps to deal with losing so much coastline in such a short time.

Overall, Williams has good ideas, but we would like to see him expand the issues on his climate change platform.


Drew Knight
Weak Click to read about our ranking scales

Drew Knight is a political activist.

Knight acknowledges that climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the world, and he wants to see some systemic change. However, he has a limited platform and little information available on his plans to change the system.


Bill Cassidy
Bad Click to read about our ranking scales

Bill Cassidy has been a congressman since 2009, switching between the 5 and 6 districts before he became a Senator. His LCV scorecard rating is 7%.

Cassidy has a terrible voting record. The few items of legislation that he has voted positively on are water conservation programs and research – a very important aspect of conservation in a state that is directly affected by rising sea levels. However, looking into water conservation and pollution reduction and expanding aid for natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, etc. is fairly useless if not researched and addressed in tandem with climate change, which is causing a majority of the water-related natural disasters in the gulf.

Additionally, he has continuously supported expanding and using oil as a major energy source. Louisiana has been a powerhouse of oil refining, and as a ranking member of the Senate Energy Subcommittee, Cassidy has real opportunities daily to work towards a clean energy future, and instead he has been pushed around by oil lobbyists.

His new clean energy angle is natural gas production and consumption. Although natural gas certainly causes less CO2 emissions, the real kicker is it’s methane emissions. Methane can hold almost 90x more heat than a carbon dioxide molecule over a 20 year time period (cited). In simple terms, this heat absorption causes the atmosphere to heat up, causing ice to melt, causing flooding and a rise is sea levels. Although natural gas is, debatably, a better alternative than oil from a ground and water pollution standpoint, it is still far away from being a preferable major energy production and consumption material. We want to see a real interest in solar and hydro power from people in power in the gulf.

Cassidy also clearly states that he wants to get rid of “red tape” to give oil and gas companies an easier time extracting, refining, and producing oil and natural gas. That “red tape” are often necessary and important restrictions and guidelines that refiners need to follow to keep pollution to a minimum and to protect those who live close to these industrial complexes from air and water pollutants. On a local scale, removing these regulations could have serious health repercussions for the people who live in these areas, and on a global scale, the impact on the water and atmospheric emissions will be catastrophic.

We want to see some positive changes from the Senator. He has so many opportunities to work on creating jobs in a vast and rapidly expanding green energy economy that he has been ignoring. Louisiana can’t afford to be left behind in the climate crisis- the rapidly dwindling shoreline is a testament to the amount of time that the Senator has wasted already.


Dustin Murphy
Unknown Click to read about our ranking scales

Dustin Murphy is a welder.

Murphy doesn’t have any information available on his stances on sustainability, clean energy, or climate change.


Jamar “Doc” Montgomery
Unknown Click to read about our ranking scales

Jamar “Doc” Montgomery is an attorney, mechanical engineer & Navy veteran. 

Montgomery doesn’t have any information available on his stances on sustainability, clean energy, or climate change.


District 4 Representatives

Mike Johnson
Bad Click to read about our ranking scales

Mike Johnson has been an incumbent since 2016, with an LCV scorecard of 3%. 

In his history as a representative, he has only 3 votes that are pro-environment. He has voted against amendments meant to block protection for endangered whales, remove protections for federal forests in Alaska, and undermine the Land and Water Conservation Fund through diverting funds to national parks maintenance. He also introduced a bill to make the process of permit approval easier and thus avoid environmental regulations relating to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Johnson has also called the Paris Climate Agreement “lopsided,” and discussed how it was bad for America due to regulations and cost to the American people. According to Open Secrets, Johnson has received $190,350 in donations from the Oil and Gas industry since 2015

As a member of the Committee on Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, Johnson has a huge opportunity to make a real difference in the switch to renewable energy; instead, he stresses the importance of cutting government restrictions while encouraging renewable energy projects. Although this is good in theory, in practice, renewable energy production is often shouldered out of the market by big oil and gas when they receive subsidies from the federal government to make their energy a cheaper alternative.

 We would like to see changes from him regarding environmental commitments, with more action towards future environmental policy in congress. Johnson’s position on the Water, Oceans, and Wildlife subcommittee has great potential to help Louisiana address its disappearing coastlines, but his lack of action speaks volumes.


Kenny Houston
Unknown Click to read about our ranking scales

Kenny Houston is a Teacher & Mental Health Specialist.

Houston does not have any information available on his stances on sustainability, clean energy, or climate change.