Entergy Louisiana is asking a court to force owners of 14 tracts of land in Lincoln Parish to surrender the rights to portions of their property so the utility company can build a major new transmission line to supply electricity to Meta’s planned data center in neighboring Richland Parish, according to a copy of the suit shared with the Gulf States Newsroom.
The lawsuit, filed Oct. 14 in the 3rd Judicial District Court in Lincoln Parish, seeks to use expropriation — Louisiana’s version of eminent domain — or the government's power to take private property for a public purpose.
Entergy’s purpose is to build a nearly 58-mile-long, 500-kilovolt transmission line from Mount Olive to Sarepta, running from a substation in Lincoln Parish to another substation in Webster Parish and carrying electricity through North Louisiana.
The lawsuit comes amid broader opposition from North Louisiana landowners to Entergy's plans to acquire private property for the Meta data center's power infrastructure. On Nov. 9, the Louisiana Landowners Coalition and two other groups sued the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC), challenging a fast-track approval process known as the Lightning Directive.
The groups argue the commission adopted the policy without proper public notice or an opportunity for public comment. The directive lets utilities skip some regulatory steps, and Entergy plans to use it in December to seek approval of seven gas plants and transmission lines for Meta’s data center.
That lawsuit doesn’t directly challenge Entergy's efforts to acquire land, but landowners argue the commission's approval of the utility's projects could help establish the public necessity Entergy would cite in expropriation proceedings.
Entergy says the transmission lines are necessary to meet growing electricity demand, improve the reliability of Louisiana’s power grid and serve new development in North Louisiana, including the Meta data center, that its current transmission system cannot handle.
In the suit against Lincoln Parish landowners, Entergy says the LPSC certified the project as being in the public interest.
The petition identifies 14 separate tracts of land that the project would affect. The named property owners include individuals, family trusts and business entities.
Entergy says it has reached agreements with some, but not all, of the affected landowners. The owners named in the suit have not accepted its offers.
Before filing suit, the company says it sent each owner a notice and an independent appraisal of their property, and offered more than the appraised value. The lawsuit does not disclose the individual offers or how much Entergy expects to pay.
If the owners don’t agree, Entergy is asking the court to set the price. Under expropriation, Louisiana’s version of eminent domain, the owner keeps the land, but the utility gets the right to use it, and Entergy must pay “just compensation” first.
Entergy is also seeking reimbursement from the landowners for the costs of the expropriation proceedings.
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What Entergy wants from landowners
The rights the utility is seeking would extend beyond permission to build the transmission line.
Entergy wants a legal right to use a strip of each property for the power line. That would let it build towers and run lines across the land, and send crews and equipment onto it to build, inspect and repair the line. It would also let Entergy clear trees and brush that could threaten the line or block access to it. The petition calls this right a “servitude,” Louisiana’s version of an easement.
The requested servitudes would also restrict how owners could use portions of their land.
Landowners would be prohibited from building structures or placing potential hazards within the servitude, including houses, barns, garages, sheds, ponds, swimming pools and wells, if they could interfere with the electrical facilities. This means that even if landowners retain ownership of their properties, Entergy is seeking rights that could significantly limit what they can do with the affected portions of their land.
Entergy says it selected the transmission line path after considering existing land uses, effects on property owners, environmental impacts, existing rights-of-way, cultural resources, engineering constraints, safety, and costs. The company says it attempted to run the line alongside existing transmission facilities to limit disruption.
The utility also argues the project will benefit electricity customers beyond Meta. It says the additional transmission capacity will help move electricity across Louisiana, accommodate future development in North Louisiana and allow for maintenance outages without compromising the broader grid.
Who pays for the line has been a point of contention.
Under Entergy’s application to the LPSC, Meta would directly fund billions of dollars in other substations and transmission upgrades, but ratepayers would be responsible for at least $470 million in infrastructure, including the Mount Olive to Sarepta line, Nolan McKendry reported in June 2025 for The Center Square — a non-profit newswire service that focuses on state and local government.
The petition does not say what the line will cost.
It does say the project was included in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's 2025 transmission expansion plan and is needed to comply with federal reliability requirements. Entergy also says it will build the new lines to its latest wind-load standards to better withstand extreme weather, including ice storms and tornadoes.
Entergy did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
