The Louisiana Public Service Commission voted Wednesday (April 15) to expedite the application for seven new natural gas power plants that would power a second new Meta data center in Richland Parish, shirking much of their standard review process for one of the largest single power requests in state history.
Commissioners approved three gas power plants for Meta’s ‘Hyperion’ data center, the first project in Richland Parish, last year, bringing the total to ten.
In a 4-1 vote — a split that has become increasingly common as the commission has taken up more data center requests on its docket — the PSC allowed the Louisiana-based monopoly utility company Entergy and tech giant Meta, via one of its subsidiaries, to bypass the typical competitive bidding process outlined by state law.
In practice, this means an administrative judge who typically issues an independent ruling to commissioners before they vote to ensure all parties — including ratepayers — get the best deal has been removed from the equation entirely.
The PSC also voted in favor of reviewing the application for the seven new gas power plants – Entergy’s end of the project – on an accelerated timeline of under eight months.
The application estimates that more than $16 billion will be invested into the gas plants alone, as well as several billion more in other infrastructure, rising to more than $21 billion.
District 3 commissioner Davante Lewis was the sole vote against the effort. He similarly opposed a major change last December when commissioners voted to adopt a new regulatory pathway designed to speed electricity connections for large projects, like data centers.
He told WWNO/WRKF before Wednesday’s vote that he felt the review of a project so large should not be rushed or be exempted from typical regulatory requirements.
“I'm struggling on it," Lewis said of the request to waive the administrative law judge’s recommendation. "I think this motion is too early to determine whether or not we should waive the [administrative law judge] making a formal recommendation to the body."
‘Lightning speed’
The changes enacted by the PSC both in December and this week align with Gov. Jeff Landry’s “Lighting Speed Initiative,” an executive order issued in September directing state agencies to streamline permitting and infrastructure decisions tied to economic development.
That’s mostly happening through Louisiana Economic Development (LED), a state agency with direct ties to Gov. Landry’s office. The goal is to make Louisiana more attractive and efficient for large industrial investments.
But some critics of the new Meta project in Richland Parish say they’re concerned about a lack of transparency in the review process and likely increased costs to ratepayers.
Because all 10 plants would be fueled by natural gas, and the United States’ emergence this decade as one of the leading global exporters of natural gas (as LNG), prices for the commodity are now subject to more volatility than ever.
Only weeks into its first winter as the main natural gas provider for Louisiana, the venture capital-backed Delta Utilities faced growing calls from both customers and public officials over sharply rising heating bills. The utility answered that it was a response to the sharply rising cost of natural gas on the domestic market.
Jackson Voss, senior governmental affairs advisor for the non-profit Alliance for Affordable Energy, said the state’s doubling down on such a large investment — tied to what is now such a volatile commodity — could expose ratepayers to even more risk.
“Even the cost of building a natural gas power plant has more or less doubled over the last 10 years, and it might be more than that actually,” he said. “ We're looking at Louisiana locking itself into even more dependence on natural gas. Already, 75% of Louisiana's electricity is produced using natural gas. If these 10 new gas-fired power plants are built, we're looking more like 90%.”
This change would mean Louisiana rate payers, even outside of Entergy, are going to be impacted by the cost of fossil fuels more substantially, Voss said.
“That's a really risky thing, especially in a state where people can already have a hard time affording their electric bills,” he added.
There’s also the question of whether the lifespan of either Meta data center will match that of the new gas plants, which Voss said ranges from about 30 to 40 years.
At both the Hyperion and the newer Project Everest site, the tech giant is reportedly only locked in for 20 years. After that, Louisiana’s largest single power request is open-ended, and as the provider, Entergy is legally entitled to recoup costs through customer billing.
There is also the possibility that Meta could pull out of or change the scope of both projects, as they’ve done with others recently, before that 20-year mark is met or even before construction concludes. But through a curtain of non-disclosure agreements, thorough redactions and accelerated timelines, advocates like Voss said it's hard to really know many of the details of these agreements at all.
As that accelerated eight-month review deadline approaches, the races for two seats opening on the Public Service Commission, District 1 and 5, will be reaching their apex as longtime commissioners Eric Skrmetta and Foster Campbell hit their term limits.
But as part of the changes enacted during Wednesday’s meeting, the final vote on Entergy and Meta’s seven new gas plants will take place on their requested date of Nov. 18 — after the winner of either seat is elected, but before they’re sworn into office.
Both Skrmetta of the first district and Campbell of the second were last re-elected in 2020, just as AI data centers – and particularly ‘hyperscale’ data centers – were beginning to proliferate across the country. According to the research non-profit Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the number of data centers in the U.S. doubled between 2018 and 2021, and then doubled again between 2021 and 2025.
That means that for the bulk of that rapid proliferation, voters in both districts – including residents of Richland Parish, in District 5 – have yet to weigh in at the ballot box on the question of data centers and those elected to regulate statewide utilities.
And at their first opportunity this November, two of the commission’s five members will be winding down a short lame duck period, with their replacements unable to influence the final proceedings in one of Louisiana’s largest ever single energy investments.
“With this process, allowing this commission to make this decision before new commissioners take their seats, we're effectively saying to voters that it doesn't really matter what you say,” Voss said. “What matters is who's on this commission right now.”
