Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred B. and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.

Hi, everyone, and happy New Year, I'm Andre.

In a moment, our exclusive end of the year sit down interview with Governor John Bel Edwards.

But first, the Governor Thursday addressed the state's fifth coronavirus surge.

He strongly discouraged large New Year's Eve gatherings.

Also, the Department of Health says the American variant accounts for more than 88% of new cases, and we've seen daily spikes that are breaking single day records.

Wednesday's record of 9000 new cases was promptly broken Thursday by 12,000 confirmed cases, and the numbers continue to climb.

Edwards was at his home in tangible Paris as he spoke via Zoom.

The Department of Health here in Louisiana, and I are urging you to celebrate from home with members of your everyday household because that's how much COVID 19 there is out there right now and how highly transmissible it is and how serious the situation is.

The governor stopped short of issuing any new mandates at this point.

Now let's join my annual interview with Governor John Bel Edwards each year.

LP begins the new year with a one on one sit down with the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards.

And so once again, we will do that as we look forward to a Happy New Year.

Governor, welcome.

Thank you, Andre.

Good to be with you.

We look ahead to a new year here and in our state right now we have people who are some still wondering about a new roof over their heads and hurricane recovery.

And this is in a lot of areas southwest, southeast Louisiana.

The pandemic also continues.

These have been the two big items that have been all over the place during the last two and a half years for you.

And first of all, let's address where we are with vaccines, COVID and what that looks like in the days to come.

Sure.

And by the way, that's a great intro, because 2020, 2021, 21 very difficult years really for the country, but probably nowhere more than in Louisiana because we have led the nation on two of the surges, one in 2020, one in 2021.

With respect to COVID, we've had five hurricanes hit our state in the last two hurricane seasons, and so our people really are tired.

So let's hope.

Let's pray, let's work to make 2020 to a much better year.

I'm optimistic that that it will be we we know that we will have our first hurricane recovery money for permanent housing work within the next couple of three months, and that's for southwest Louisiana.

But we believe that very quickly thereafter, we will have a recovery funding for housing the Community Development Block, grant funding for Hurricane IDA as well.

We're going to run one statewide program with the exact same eligibility requirements and benefits across all of South Louisiana.

But quite frankly, it's frustrating to me and I note to homeowners because of the slow pace that Congress has taken in order to make these these funds available to us.

But they are going to be available within the next couple of months and those programs will will resume.

Obviously, the pandemic remains with us.

We're still in a public health emergency.

You know, there is some good news right now.

Our numbers are among the lowest in the country and the lowest we've experienced at any point in the pandemic, a far cry from where we were at this time last year when we were surging, coming out of the holidays and certainly a far cry from where we were in August and September of 2021, when we had 3022 people in the hospital around August the 18th, where we're averaging about 200 people in the hospital.

Our percent positivity on tests is about 2.3%.

It had risen as high as 19%.

The number of deaths has certainly decreased, but they're not yet at zero, so families are still suffering with that.

So we have a lot of work to do, but we're exactly twelve and a half months now into our vaccinations.

We started on December the 14th of of 2020 with vaccines, and we have 50% of our people fully vaccinated, about 57% who have taken at least one shot.

But one of the things that concerns me, and I hope we get a chance to talk about this.

Only 25% of the people who are eligible for boosters have actually received boosters, and with this new on the crime variant, it appears that being boosted is going to be the key to restoring the effectiveness, the protection of the vaccine to what it was when when people encountered Delta, for example.

So I am, I am making.

Of strong pitch for people to be vaccinated if they have it and to be boosted as soon as they were eligible, which means six months out from there, their second shot right and getting boosted, getting vaccinated.

These are not difficult things to do.

You can go to any pharmacy, your doctor, many places readily available.

You fill out brief paperwork and you got your shot in your arm.

So this is not a difficult thing.

Free, free, safe and effective hospitals, doctors offices at pharmacies.

We have community events that are sponsored by different organizations.

The National Guard on average administers about 13 or 14 hundred vaccinations a day all over the state of Louisiana, and we are encouraging people to do it.

And it look, today is a new day and tomorrow is a new year.

Just because someone hasn't decided to be vaccinated yet doesn't mean they can't make that decision.

If they haven't been boosted yet, they can make that decision because it is still the case that about 87% of the people in the hospital with COVID are unvaccinated.

And that's that's just the facts and and being vaccinated is so important for you, but also for your family, for your school, your work environment, for your community, for really, for all of us.

So I encourage people to do it.

It's a new year for those who are not yet vaccinated.

Please make that part of your New Year's resolutions and and unlike the trips to the gym, let's make sure that we actually do it.

Do it.

That's right.

How has the enrollment of children eligible for vaccinations of those age groups?

How has that changed the the numbers or has it really reflected in the numbers?

It is an opportunity to and I'd like to talk about that and also it becoming a norm vaccination, among others for school kids.

Well, first of all, we can have kids vaccinated with Pfizer down to age five and above.

That is very important.

That is that is under EUA, the full licensure or full FDA approval, if you will, actually starts at age 16 and above.

But being able to get younger people vaccinated is critically important because since about July, 30% of all of our cases have been in kids under 18 and we've had about 18 kids die 14 from COVID, four from multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, which is which is caused by COVID as well.

But we know that an awful lot of transmission comes from kids, too.

So even if a young person doesn't get sick themselves, and many do, and there was a time in in late August when every ICU bed in our children's hospitals were full.

I mean.

But a lot of transmission comes from from these young people, so it's part of the effort to really end the pandemic.

But you can't ignore 30% of your transmission if you think you're going to end the pandemic and we owe it to our children to keep them safe.

We know that that FDA approval means that the vaccine is safe and effective for them.

Quite frankly, I'm heartened that the number of young people who have been vaccinated have made that decision, or probably the parents have made the decision.

But quite frankly, it's too low of a number and we need to continue to press that and.

And you mentioned about schools, which you continue to be fought against every step of the way by again, other Louisiana political leaders.

They yeah, they stand in front, they stand nationally and you have stuck to your guns.

You've looked at the evidence in the science and gone with what you've known from that perspective.

Yeah.

And you know, I've listened to the to the arguments.

I've listened to the data that's used to support the arguments against adding it to the vaccine schedule.

But but there's so much misinformation there.

And, you know, I study this issue very, very hard.

We have frequent calls and updates with the CDC and the FDA.

And and we're looking at this from the perspective of Louisiana through the Office of Public Health and so forth.

We are in a pandemic and we have a vaccine that is currently approved for full approval for kids 16 and older.

If you don't add it to the schedule for them, that is that is not responsive to the current situation, this public health emergency.

And I want to remind everybody that we have a doctor believes that it's contraindicated in any young person, then that Dr. Can can excuse that young person from being vaccinated, even if it's added to the schedule.

But more importantly, we're not.

Changing the rules with respect to parental opt outs.

So without having to express any particular reason, any parent or guardian can can fill out a written dissent and their children are excused from this vaccine being mandatory.

But it doesn't exclude the vast others that it's it's fine with and becomes part of what could be done to right?

Well, just think, just think if this had been the approach taken when when the polio vaccine was developed or measles or so many others.

And this is the vaccine that is so important today for a pandemic that is raging today and one that we continue to to experience new variants because but mutations of viruses are a function of transmission.

The less people who are vaccinated, the more transmission, the more variants you're going to have.

And right now, you know, we're just now starting to learn about the Omicron variant, which which is much more transmissible than previous forms, probably not as virulent.

But if enough people get it, it doesn't have to be more violence before more people are going to be in the hospitals and more people are going to die.

And that's just the nature of where we are.

But at the end of the day, you know, this is about public health, and I believe that the responsible thing to do is to be guided by science and the consensus of the experts, which was this you added to the schedule subject to the parental popped up, and that should result in more people being vaccinated.

That is the key to ending this pandemic and to making sure that we don't ever have a bigger demand on our hospitals than then has to be the case and that we save as many lives as possible as well too.

And as you say, save as many lives as possible.

You cannot help but reflect on the many thousands of lives lost in our state, hundreds of thousands in the country and, you know, untold around the world.

But it is.

It's something that it feels like people almost just don't want to talk about, like it didn't happen.

But those people aren't here anymore.

Yeah, well, that's right.

And it's a difficult thing.

It is.

And look, we know that the clear majority of people in Louisiana still embrace science, and they believe that common sense mitigation measures and pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines are the right thing to do.

But quite often, you know, the oxygen in the room is taken up with people who are saying other things.

And that's unfortunate because the the misinformation gets spread and you never know where any particular individual is going to get the information from upon which they're going to make their decisions.

And so it's it's I encourage people to get information from reliable sources to go to their doctor.

Go to your physician.

If you have any questions about the safety or efficacy of these vaccines or watch important for you to be vaccinated, to be fully vaccinated, to be boosted when when that booster becomes eligible.

You know, here we are.

A little over a year into the vaccines, probably there's nothing I can say that's going to move anyone who hasn't yet been vaccinated.

And I accept that what I am encouraging people who are in that situation to please consult with your physician and see what he or she tells you about the importance of, as you said, and you can always, if you haven't yet, you can always change your mind.

Tomorrow is a brand new year always available?

Let's talk hurricanes in the southwest part of the state.

I spent time in Cameron and Lake Charles.

I was there for the year anniversary of Laura, which then all of a sudden on the other side of the state, Ida came in but Laura and then followed by Delta, et cetera.

Laura put a blow to that region that they are still feeling like they're in the initial stages of recovery because money did not come quickly .

To be quite honest, it wasn't paid attention to in the way that other storms that affected bigger metro areas even in New Orleans, the Northeast, they get more attention.

Nick Hunter, the mayor of Lake Charles, I said, We just don't have the bandwidth.

That's a tragedy.

They have now gotten some money.

But even that is still a fraction of what is needed.

Touch on that, please, before we go to our other big storm.

Yeah, so Hurricane Laura, followed by Delta in southwest Louisiana in 2020, were extremely destructive.

Laura Todd with Item, by the way, for the strongest and looking at these 1856 storm as the strongest ever.

And I will tell you, working with our local partners, working with all the people at the state level, the initial response efforts were really quite good in terms of.

Of debris removal, the search and rescue, not congregant sheltering.

20,000 people in hotel rooms, for example, for the first time ever after Hurricane Laura.

All of those efforts and none of them were perfect, but but really proceeded quite well.

The challenges on the permanent recovery side, because it wasn't until several weeks ago that Congress got around to appropriating money that would come through HUD for the Community Development Block grant disaster recovery.

That's the source of funding you need for housing.

So we we have, in our estimation, a little over $1,000,000,000 worth of unmet need for low to moderate income individuals whose homes were severely damaged or destroyed.

And about 60% of these in this market were renters.

About 40% were homeowners.

But these are people without insurance.

And the idea that that happened in August of 2020 and it was just several weeks ago that an appropriation was made and HUD, the total appropriation was $5 billion divided between 2020 and 2021 storms.

HUD is appropriated 2 billion to 2020 storms and right at 600 million for Louisiana.

Well, I'll just tell you, we have over $1,000,000,000 worth of unmet need.

And so we continue to work with the administration in Washington with our congressional delegation.

And I have had multiple trips to Washington to meet with Republicans and Democrats in the House and in the Senate leadership, but committee chairman and so forth.

I'm optimistic that it's going to be increased, but I will tell you extremely frustrated.

And the delays, quite frankly, are inexcusable.

And I'll tell you, I'm frustrated.

Can you imagine what the homeowners living the families are?

Who are living through it?

Absolutely.

But I'm optimistic we're going to be able to deliver a recovery, but it should never take this long.

And if there's one thing Congress, even with all the dysfunction we're seeing in Washington, if there's one thing that Congress and administration should be able to do, it is disaster recovery.

Because we are all Americans, there are not Republican and Democrat storms.

And when it comes to survivors who need assistance, you don't have Democrats and Republicans, you have Americans.

There are many things that you have initiated and been a part of.

So how does that help us going forward?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, I believe because no state in the nation is suffering the effects of climate change more than Louisiana, as evidenced by sea level rise, which is causing, in part, the loss of our coastal lands, but also because of this increasing severity and frequency of natural disasters like the hurricanes that we just mentioned.

All of this is a function of climate change.

And so I did go to Glasgow for COP26, the preeminent worldwide conference to address climate change, to make sure that people understand that in Louisiana, we take this seriously.

We have committed ourselves to being net zero carbon emissions by 2050 so that we can limit the increase in temperatures of the Earth.

Going forward, it's important for us, but it's also an economic development trip because there are so many businesses all around the world who who are investing in things like wind energy and solar energy and hydrogen and biomass and carbon capture and sequestration.

What we're embracing all of these things in Louisiana, and that's how we're going to get to net zero by 2050.

And we're also taking a balanced approach here because we know that whether we want to or not tomorrow, we're not going to flip a light switch and stop using oil and gas.

And you might as well get the oil where it's most carbon advantaged and that happens to be in the Gulf of Mexico.

And so we're pushing for a balanced approach, but we're very serious about this, and we believe this is how we diversify our economy and bring investment and jobs careers here to Louisiana.

At the same time, while we benefit all of mankind, but Louisiana with respect to climate change as well.

And you have the discussion with the president, though, who initially said essentially it felt like we're going to flip the switch and turn off oil and gas fossil fuels and go to this.

But the this the total clean energy and the wind farming, et cetera, all that involved that doesn't exist yet.

So there does have to be something in between one of those things.

I wonder how much LNG could play a role.

And there's been a huge announcement recently, another expansion to where within a few years north, it's interesting North America becomes the number one exporter of LNG, but North America we're talking about.

That's actually Cameron Parish.

Yeah, well, it's certainly it's certainly Louisiana, yes, but it is Cameron Parish, right?

And that's an exciting opportunity.

And what I what I call that is the transition within the transition.

So as we move away from fossil fuels and that's going to happen and look, we're always going to be reliant on some amount of crude, some amount of natural gas that's never going to go completely away.

But clearly we will we will decrease our reliance on fossil fuels.

But but that's going to take decades.

one to three decades.

We don't know for sure.

But in the meantime, every time a coal power plant is retired in favor of one that's powered by natural gas, that's better for the climate.

It's also good for Louisiana's economy because we are the leaders in the United States for LNG exports.

And you see Venture Global announcing more than 10 billion dollar final investment decision in Cameron Parish to construct a new LNG facility near was the very first.

Sure.

And, you know, just one contract from Cheniere with Taiwan.

$25 billion worth of natural gas.

So this is an important part of what we're doing.

And especially when you when you combine the LNG production with carbon capture and sequestration, which is uniquely available in Louisiana, given our geologic formations, the pipeline density and the amount of carbon that we're producing.

I mean, this is good for the economy, it's good for the environment and it is part of that transition within the transition.

Many times with the Cameron Parish Port Director Claire Marso, and she is excited about that, of course.

So where does our economy stand right now and what are some of the prospects going forward besides LNG?

Why should Louisianans have hope?

Well, first of all, we absolutely should have hope for one thing is, we're doing much better than we were at the outset of the pandemic and really at any point in the pandemic thus far .

So for example, as we gather today here on the day before we enter 2022, the unemployment rate seasonally adjusted is 5.1%.

Now it's hard to talk about the economy without a lot of caveats.

We know that there are a lot that measures the people who are out of work and looking for work, and there are a lot of people who are not looking for work.

Clearly, that has to change because people are going to have to support themselves and their families and reenter the labor market.

And by the way, that's not just here in Louisiana, it's all across the country in terms of how people want to work.

And quite frankly, when I went to cop 26 and I talked to so many people from around the world, this is oddly enough happening around the world as well.

But it's going to be our job to make sure that there are jobs available for people.

And there are we have more jobs posted right now that are available people than we have people seeking.

So it's going to be it's going to, I think, require us to continue to invest and diversify our economy, making sure that that that people have the skill sets and the knowledge necessary to be successful and so forth.

And those are the efforts we're going to continue to make through the community college system.

You know, our hybrid master plan for our state is such that we want 60% of all adults to have a post-secondary credential or degree by 2030.

But we want it in a relevant field, one where those jobs are going to be in demand.

But the diversification is going to be critically important.

And then I just want you to look at what's going on.

So we've already announced that we closed the books last year with a surplus.

Much of that surplus will go to capital construction projects.

We have an excess of revenue in the current year.

There's still ARPA funding available that's going to go into things like broadband internet expansion across the state, particularly in rural areas.

But we're going to be fixing water systems and sewer systems.

Infrastructure plan will be big for roads and bridges.

But I haven't even gotten to that yet.

Now we have the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act as well.

And so all of these investments are going to play out in the near future and over the next several years that create an improved economy.

The economic impact of that there will be plenty of jobs and so forth.

And so I am very optimistic, not that we're without our challenges.

No state is without challenges, but we are in a very good position to to move forward now.

And I believe and many economists are saying this, that we will have a full recovery from the pandemic by the end of 2020.

Remarkable idea that right now that requires that we have to make progress on the vaccinations and making sure the pandemic stays under control because if we don't, people aren't going to travel if people don't travel.

How does the economy of a state like Louisiana ever get back to normal?

Because we're we're so dependent upon tourism and so forth, and that has to get back?

Yeah, yeah.

And by the way, it is and you know, I.

Was in New Orleans over the last several weekends, for example, in other places in our state.

And I'm seeing a lot of folks out at restaurants and hotels.

I know conventions are coming back and so I'm optimistic and I'm and I want the people to be optimistic, I said at the outside outside of the show.

We need to hope, pray and work to make sure that 2022 is a better year, and that's certainly true with respect to our economy as well.

OK, so let me ask you this now.

You're a guy who loves music.

Yeah, country music.

So on the spot, if you could think of a song that describes where we are and where we're going.

Can you think of that one?

I can't, but I'm going to in.

It's a country version that I most often have.

No, no, no.

It's my faith.

It's my favorite hymn.

How great thou art.

And because God is great.

And you know, like most of Louisiana, you know, faith means an awful lot to me.

And that is that is how I draw inspiration and strength even in some very difficult days.

But God is God is great.

And so how great thou art is is a song that I would recommend to people as we start 2022.

And like I said, the power of prayer is just awesome.

And let's let's just get through 2022 in a much better fashion.

But understanding when we do that, it will be because of God's greatness.

It's always one of my bright spots to be able to sit down and talk to you.

Certainly like this the beginning of each year.

Governor, thank you and happy new year to you and your family.

Thank you, Andre.

And the same to you and all the people of Louisiana and everyone.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you could watch anything LPB any time, wherever you are with our LPB PBS app for Kara St. Cyr and everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Andre Morreau We're wishing you a Happy New Year in 2020 to.

Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.