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Non-profit

Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LBB)

Website:

www.labucketbrigade.org/
Location:

New Orleans, LA
Tax ID:

72-1488935
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2021):

Revenue: $2,050,834
Expenses: $1,188,944
Assets: $1,415,854
Type:

Environmental Advocacy Organization
Founded:

2000
Director:

Anne Rolfes

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Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) is a left-of-center environmental organization that seeks to stop the building and expansion of any energy producing company or pipeline and only favors wind and solar as sources of power. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade has criticized President Joe Biden for making concessions to the oil and gas industry, conducts civil disobedience to garner attention, and seeks to tie its cause to that of race and the legacy of slavery.

History

Louisiana Bucket Brigade was founded in 2000 with guidance from left-of-center groups Earthjustice, Communities for a Better Environment, the Sierra Club, and Xavier University’s Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. 1 LABB director and founder Anne Rolfes’ had engaged in work in West of Africa documenting the oil industry. 2

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade assists people in fighting petrochemical industry expansion and documenting issues and accidents to end fossil fuels. 3 Louisiana Bucket Brigade provides technical support in gaining media attention, organizing, air monitoring, cartography, accident research, and report writing. 4

Positions

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade believes greenhouse gas emissions are accelerating and intensifying global warming, storms, and soil erosion. 5 The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is opposed to natural gas and coal and only seeks development of weather-dependent energy such as solar and wind power. 6 LABB is opposed to building new natural gas export terminals on the coast of Louisiana. 7

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade claims the small African American community of St. James, Louisiana may be wiped off the map by petrochemical expansion in St. James Parish. 8 LABB collaborates with RISE St. James to oppose projects such as the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, Formosa, Wanhua, South Louisiana Methanol, Linde, and the expansion of the Ergon tank farm. 9

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Louisiana governor to increase Louisiana’s Clean Air Act emissions fees. 10 In 2020, LABB joined left-wing environmental and racial advocacy groups to advocate for an amendment to the state constitution to bar tax breaks for the oil industry. 11

In 2022, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade criticized President Joe Biden for breaking a campaign promise to prohibit new oil and gas leases on federal lands. 12 LABB stated that this “makes Biden more similar to FDR than he probably realizes. Just as FDR excluded people of color from the New Deal in exchange for Southern Democrats’ votes, Biden sacrificed the people of Louisiana to the oil and gas industry for [West Virginia U.S. Senator Joe] Manchin’s vote.” 13

Activities

“Women of Cancer Alley”

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade organizes and supports “The Women of Cancer Alley,” a collection of films made by women who live adjacent to chemical plants and refineries along the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana. 14 These films focus on global warming, illnesses, and property values. 15 LABB further seeks to tie its fight against the oil industry to Black history and the Slave Revolt of 1811 by charging for bike ride tours along “cancer alley” and stating two powerful forces in Louisiana are the environmental justice movement and Black history challenging the status quo. 16 The Louisiana Bucket Brigade and RISE St. James organized a Movement for Black Lives march in St. James Parish in October 2020. 17

Gene Team

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade has launched a “gene team” to invoke the 1800s further by tracing the history of Black slaves and residents and documenting their history and connection to the land. 18 Documenting histories, burial sites, and his historical places of Black Americans was used in a fight against Shell Oil and is being used to argue against expansion of the petrochemical industry. 19

Plastics and Natural Gas Exports

In 2021, LABB worked to pass resolutions by New Orleans and Westwego City Councils to oppose a Formosa plastics plant. 20 After the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued air permits to Formosa, a judge reversed the decision and vacated the permits. 21 In 2021, LABB and other organizations convinced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to require an environmental impact statement on a Nucor Steel expansion project. 22 The resulting two-year delay led to Nucor canceling the project. 23

In 2022, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade launched a campaign against natural gas exports focusing on Louisiana with an event in Rehoboth, Delaware. 24 The Defend Louisiana Initiative aimed at drawing media attention and promoting its environmental message by launching in Delaware to get the attention of President Biden. 25

Civil Disobedience

In August 2016, four people were arrested at the New Orleans office of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) after the Louisiana Bucket Brigade piled flood debris from Baton Rouge floods at the entrances to BOEM offices. 26 In 2016, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade was among environmental groups that took over an auction room in the New Orleans Superdome attempting to disrupt the federal government from auctioning property to oil industries. 27

In 2015, Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists were arrested at BP Oil’s headquarters in Houston, Texas after the chairman refused to meet with them. 28 In 2014, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists attended a climate march in New York City where LABB director Anne Rolfes was arrested at Wall Street. 29

In June 2020, director Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh from the Louisiana Bucket Brigade were arrested in Baton Rouge 30 after leaving a box full of plastic pellets at the doorstop of a lobbyist for the chemical industry resulting in the police contacting a hazmat team to handle the package. 31 Charges were ultimately dropped by the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office. 32

Finances

In 2021, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade had net assets of $1,075,877. 33 According to the organization’s tax returns, in 2021 the Louisiana Bucket Brigade recorded $2,039,993 in revenue and $1,774,882 in expenses. 34 In 2020, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade raised $2,050,834 in revenue and $1,188,944 in expenses. 35

Foundation funding to the Louisiana Bucket Brigade in 2022 included Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Schmidt Family Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Cloud Mountain Foundation, the Elizabeth B. & Arthur E. Roswell Foundation, Equation Campaign, Friends of the Earth, John Merck Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Overbrook Foundation, PRBB Foundation, Patagonia, Rose Foundation for Communities and Environment, the Solutions Project, and the Tides Foundation. 36

Leadership

Anne Rolfes has been the founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade since 2000. 37 Rolfes has said that she hopes to phase out of fossil fuels in her lifetime. 38 Rolfes began her career working with local communities in Nigeria to address environmental damages in the Niger Delta by oil companies 39 and has been a peace corps volunteer in Togo, a West African nation. 40

Rolfes has a Masters in International Development from Tulane University and has received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader Award and the Tides Foundation Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Public Advocacy. 41

References

  1. “History and Accomplishments.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  2. “History and Accomplishments.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  3. “Our Work.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade.” Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/.
  4. “History and Accomplishments.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  5. “Our Work.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade.” Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/.
  6. “Protecting Louisiana from Gas Exports.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/protecting-louisiana-from-gas-exports/; “PRESS RELEASE: Louisiana Bucket Brigade Calls on New FERC Chairman Willie Phillips, to Protect Louisianans, Halt Gas Export Construction.” January 18, 2023. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/press-release-louisiana-bucket-brigade-statement-calls-on-new-ferc-chairman-willie-phillips-to-protect-louisianans-halt-gas-export-construction/.
  7.  “Protecting Louisiana from Gas Exports.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/protecting-louisiana-from-gas-exports/.
  8. “Standing with St. James.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/standing-with-st-james/.
  9.  “Standing with St. James.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/standing-with-st-james/.
  10. “2012.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  11.  “October 2020.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/
  12. “PRESS RELEASE: Louisiana Bucket Brigade Releases Statement on Biden Signing the Inflation Reduction Act.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. August 16, 2022. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/press-release-louisiana-bucket-brigade-releases-statement-on-biden-signing-the-inflation-reduction-act/.
  13. “PRESS RELEASE: Louisiana Bucket Brigade Releases Statement on Biden Signing the Inflation Reduction Act.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. August 16, 2022. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/press-release-louisiana-bucket-brigade-releases-statement-on-biden-signing-the-inflation-reduction-act/
  14. “About the Women of Cancer Alley.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade.” Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/women-of-cancer-alley/.
  15. “About the Women of Cancer Alley.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade.” Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/women-of-cancer-alley/.
  16. “Down by the River.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade.” Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/down-by-the-river/.
  17.  October 2020.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  18. “Gene Team.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/gene-team/.
  19. “Gene Team.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/our-work/gene-team/.
  20.  “April 2021.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  21. Parker, Halle. “Louisiana Judge Vacates State Air Permits for $9.4B Plastics Complex in Chemical Corridor.” WWNO. September 14, 2022. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.wwno.org/coastal-desk/2022-09-14/louisiana-judge-vacates-state-air-permits-for-9-4b-plastics-complex-in-chemical-corridor.
  22.  “August 2021.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  23. “August 2021.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  24. Flood, Chris. “Defend Louisiana Campaign Launched in Rehoboth Beach.” Cape Gazette. July 8, 2022. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.capegazette.com/article/defend-louisiana-campaign-launched-rehoboth-beach/242461.
  25. Flood, Chris. “Defend Louisiana Campaign Launched in Rehoboth Beach.” Cape Gazette. July 8, 2022. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.capegazette.com/article/defend-louisiana-campaign-launched-rehoboth-beach/242461.
  26. “History and Accomplishments.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  27. “March 23, 2016.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/
  28. “April 2015.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/; “Texas.” BP. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.bp.com/en_us/united-states/home/where-we-operate/texas.html.
  29. “2014.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/history/.
  30. Guzman, Joseph. “Two Environmentalists Hit With ‘Terrorizing’ Charges for Leaving Box of Plastic At Lobbyist’s Door.” The Hill. June 26, 2020. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/environment/504797-two-environmentalists-hit-with-terrorizing/; Sneath, Sara. “How A File Box Full of Plastic Got Two Louisiana Women Arrested for Terrorizing.” Nola.com. June 25, 2020. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.nola.com/news/environment/how-a-file-box-full-of-plastic-got-two-louisiana-women-arrested-for-terrorizing/article_ebee9ed6-b586-11ea-8819-439269c90a96.html.
  31. Sneath, Sara. “How A File Box Full of Plastic Got Two Louisiana Women Arrested for Terrorizing.” Nola.com. June 25, 2020. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.nola.com/news/environment/how-a-file-box-full-of-plastic-got-two-louisiana-women-arrested-for-terrorizing/article_ebee9ed6-b586-11ea-8819-439269c90a96.html.
  32. Sneath, Sara. “After Criminal Charges Against Them Are Dropped, Prominent Louisiana Environmentalists Vow to Keep Fighting Chemical Plants.” Louisiana Illuminator. December 21, 2020. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://lailluminator.com/2020/12/21/after-criminal-charges-against-them-are-dropped-prominent-louisiana-environmentalists-vow-to-keep-fighting-chemical-plants/.
  33.  Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Return of a Nonprofit Corporation (Form 990), 2021.
  34. Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Return of a Nonprofit Corporation (Form 990), 2021.
  35. Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Return of a Nonprofit Corporation (Form 990), 2020.
  36. “2022 Impact Report.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022ImpactReport.pdf.
  37. “Staff.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/team-and-board/; “Anne Rolfes.” LinkedIn. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-rolfes-30621328/.
  38. “Staff.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/team-and-board/.
  39. “Staff.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/team-and-board/.
  40. “Annerolfes.” X (formerly Twitter). April 23, 2023. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://twitter.com/annerolfes?lang=en
  41. “Anne Rolfes.” Bridge the Gulf. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://bridgethegulfproject.org/users/anne-rolfes; “Staff.” Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://labucketbrigade.org/about-us/team-and-board/.
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: June - May
  • Tax Exemption Received: March 1, 2001

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2021 Jun Form 990 $2,050,834 $1,188,944 $1,415,854 $515,858 N $2,048,958 $1,320 $556 $123,479
    2020 Jun Form 990 $937,849 $587,509 $535,130 $71,393 N $923,932 $2,295 $11,622 $112,628 PDF
    2019 Jun Form 990 $384,634 $340,260 $154,626 $37,685 N $381,608 $1,825 $1,201 $106,638 PDF
    2018 Jun Form 990 $412,422 $276,179 $111,369 $38,570 N $405,354 $6,170 $898 $109,443 PDF
    2017 Jun Form 990 $207,400 $226,970 $6,016 $69,395 N $201,356 $4,814 $1,230 $96,701 PDF
    2016 Jun Form 990 $157,515 $187,104 $20,028 $63,589 N $148,845 $5,680 $1,257 $81,388 PDF
    2015 Jun Form 990 $220,690 $224,494 $57,771 $71,707 Y $248,886 $850 $902 $80,188 PDF
    2014 Jun Form 990 $492,039 $458,313 $70,946 $81,052 N $533,933 $0 $491 $56,805 PDF
    2013 Jun Form 990 $397,523 $611,243 $60,504 $104,330 N $440,003 $0 $19 $83,463 PDF
    2012 Jun Form 990 $657,990 $556,333 $180,651 $10,748 N $675,405 $0 $2 $97,013 PDF
    2011 Jun Form 990 $433,437 $380,967 $75,297 $7,033 N $448,494 $0 $20 $61,775 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LBB)

    3416 B Canal Street
    New Orleans, LA