BATON ROUGE, LA. (August 12, 2025)—The Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) is scheduled to vote next week—months earlier than initially planned—on whether to approve Entergy Louisiana’s proposal to supply a new Meta data center with 2.3 gigawatts of power from three newly constructed gas plants. Entergy requested last week for the vote to be held two months early.
Louisiana’s electric grid is already deemed unreliable compared to most other states largely due to extreme weather, a lack of electric transmission capacity and an overreliance on methane gas. The proposed fossil fuel infrastructure serving the corporation that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp would span an area of roughly 70 football fields and consume approximately three times as much electricity as the entire city of New Orleans annually.
Concerns abound that Louisiana ratepayers could face power outages and price spikes should the multi-billion-dollar project—that also lacked a competitive bidding process—become a reality. Shockingly, this vote was scheduled before a formal recommendation has been made by an LPSC judge, who has been hearing arguments from stakeholders in this case. The Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) have been intervenors in this LPSC case, with legal representation by Earthjustice.
Below is a statement by Paul Arbaje, an energy analyst at UCS.
“It’s painfully obvious that Entergy and Meta want this project rushed to a vote to avoid further public scrutiny. What’s less obvious is why the Commission would cave to these corporations’ wishes when they’re ostensibly tasked with protecting Louisiana ratepayers.
“Observers inside and outside the state have undoubtedly taken notice of this pattern of fast-tracking utility proposals with very little public notice and transparency for the residents most impacted. The Commission can end this pattern now by taking this vote off the August 20 agenda and adding iron-clad ratepayer protections to this massive project.”
Below is a statement from Logan Burke, executive director of AAE.
“At no point in this process have ratepayers been given a fair shake, or even the opportunity to fully understand what their regulators are agreeing to on their behalf. What regulators will be deciding will have consequences for decades to come—likely resulting in ever greater increases on monthly electric bills for Entergy customers, not only in North Louisiana, but across the state.”
Additional Resources:
- Expert testimony examining potential impacts to ratepayers by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
- Expert testimony on transmission engineering and grid reliability issues by HickoryLedge LLC
- Expert testimony on assumptions about Meta and their data center subsidiary Laidley’s sustainability commitments by CPG Advisors on Entergy’s
- A UCS blog post summarizing the expert testimony and the lack of transparency and anticipated costs due to Entergy and Meta’s plans
- Beyond the Smokestack, UCS report on gas plant pollution
- Gas Malfunction, UCS issue brief on the unreliability of gas plants during extreme weather
- An AAE blog post on the state’s lack of grid preparedness for Entergy and Meta’s proposal