State regulators on Wednesday authorized a controversial plan to power a massive Meta-owned data facility in northeast Louisiana — a project poised to become one of the largest artificial intelligence centers in the world.
The decision by the Louisiana Public Service Commission paves the way for Entergy to build three gasfi red power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure serving the $10 billion center, which Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, plans to develop on farmland east of Monroe in rural Richland Parish.
While concerns have been raised about the potential for higher power bills and impacts to air and water, most commissioners said the center will be an economic boon for an area with few jobs and a declining population.
“I’m for it 1,000%,” said Foster Campbell, a Democrat who represents north Louisiana on the commission. “Let’s give the people of northeast Louisiana some hope.”
The commission voted 4-1 in favor of the energy plan at their meeting in Plaquemine, which drew about 150 attendees in the audience. The commission had been expected to consider the plan in October but was urged by Entergy to expedite the process.
Commissioner Davante Lewis, a Democrat whose district includes much of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, voted against the plan. Lewis has repeatedly raised concerns about the project since it was announced last year, but his stance has softened in recent weeks.
“The current plan is a significant improvement from what was originally proposed,” he said, highlighting consumer protections that put the burden of rising energy costs back on Meta.
“If there are overruns, Meta will eat the costs,” he said.
Still, he and some other Louisiana residents who spoke at the meeting worry about the project’s reliance on gas power plants, which contribute to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, and the volatility of the gas market. Louisiana lacks large-scale renewable energy sources that could be tapped to offset rising gas prices, Lewis said.
“In Texas, if gas goes up, they can use solar and wind,” he said. “In Louisiana, we have no [energy] load flexibility.”
Some residents said Entergy has a poor record of reliability and often pushes infrastructure costs on ratepayers.
“Entergy can’t keep the lights on on a good day,” Thibodaux resident Logan Wolf said. “I don’t believe they’ll be able to power this grid. I don’t believe them when they say ratepayers won’t pay more.”
The large amounts of water data centers need to cool computers sometimes tax local water supplies, but Meta has indicated the proposed center will use less water than the farm it will replace.
The plan calls for the construction of three gas plants with a combined capacity of nearly 2,300 megawatts. Two plants would be built in Richland Parish, and a third would likely be located somewhere in south Louisiana. Other infrastructure would include eight substations and about 100 miles of high-capacity transmission lines.
At about 4 million square feet, the facility will be nearly the size of Vatican City and could rank as one of the world’s five biggest data centers by the time it’s completed after 2030.
The project is expected to generate about 500 new jobs, more than 1,000 indirect jobs and employ around 5,000 construction workers, according to Louisiana Economic Development.
The mere prospect of such a project has already sparked economic activity in north Louisiana, said Rob Cleveland, CEO of Grow Northeast Louisiana, an economic development group.
In recent months, several stores and restaurants “have experienced exponential growth,” and three large business projects have been proposed in the 10-parish region.
“All these projects are due to the attention brought by the Meta project,” Cleveland said. Richland Parish has lost about 2,000 people since the 1980s and now has just under 20,000 residents. About a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, according to Census data.
“This is something drastically needed in north Louisiana,” Campbell said. “It’s a shot in the arm.”
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Verite News and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
