As Their State Isn't Sinking Fast Enough, LA Pols Want To Build Giant Data Center, Powered By NG, Paid For By Customers

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“We are in a race,” Davante Lewis, the Democratic wunderkind elected in 2022 to the powerful Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) that regulates utilities, said to me in an interview. Lewis is referring to Louisiana’s largest incumbent utility, Entergy Corp., proposal to build a massive AI data center in an impoverished section of north Louisiana, whose energy needs would equal a third of all Louisiana households. The $10 billion project is being touted as the largest single investment in Louisiana history. Shrouded in nondisclosure agreements for weeks, the project promises 300 to 500 jobs with fat salaries while obscuring a darker subtext: a surge in energy demand that would lean heavily on fossil fuels.

Even as Entergy touted nuclear, wind, and hydrogen “co-firing” as part of its late October proposal to the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC), most of the power would be supplied by two new gas-fired generators whose $3.2 billion price tag will be shouldered by ratepayers. Entergy is asking the PSC to approve plant construction by October 2025 without a competitive bidding process. The Southern Renewable Energy Association, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and other groups immediately filed motions to intervene, arguing that renewable power could be provided at lower costs without new generators that increase greenhouse gas emissions.

In November, officials revealed that the owner of the mysterious data center is Facebook’s parent company, Meta, which plans to build a 4-million-square-foot facility outside of Monroe. Meta is pledging to offset some emissions with purchases of 1,500 megawatts of solar power and financial support for a carbon capture and storage project at Entergy’s power plant in Lake Charles, according to Entergy’s filings to the PSC.

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The results of an unwatched regulatory commission have been grim. Renewable power produces just 4 percent of Louisiana’s electricity, which is among the nation’s lowest. Of that, wind and solar account for a mere 1 percent of electricity. Customer utility bills are chock full of pass-through charges approved by the PSC to cover hurricane repairs, late fee hookups, and other miscellaneous expenses. Entergy is currently seeking to recoup damages from Hurricane Francine from ratepayers who are still repaying Entergy for six storms that date as far back as 2012. Louisiana’s low-income residents also have the dubious distinction of being the most “cost-burdened” by energy, meaning that they spend a higher percentage of their paycheck on electricity and heating than anyone else, according to Lewis and Home Energy Affordability Gap data. “They are sharks,” a commission insider who asked not to be named told me in an interview. “Entergy is the only Fortune 500 company in the state of Louisiana. That is a moral failure. It profits on the backs of captive ratepayers who have no other choice.”

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https://www.desmog.com/2025/01/27/entergy-louisiana-meta-the-rising-hunger-of-ai-data-centers-accelerates-the-need-for-clean-energy-to-meet-demand/