BATON ROUGE, La. (April 15, 2026)—The Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) voted today to adopt a fast-track schedule for approving Entergy Louisiana’s application to triple the number of gas-fired power plants intended to power Meta’s Hyperion data center in Richland Parish.
The application proposes seven new gas plants, in addition to three gas plants approved in August 2025 by the commission despite substantial community pushback. Together, the 10 plants could generate approximately 7.5 gigawatts of electricity—the equivalent of more than six times the peak demand of New Orleans.
This announcement follows a newly released report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) that found that Louisiana’s electricity system costs could increase by $26 billion over the next 15 years solely due to high data center growth. The analysis also calculated up to $90 billion in public health and climate damages due to increased fossil fuel pollution from powering data centers.
Below is a statement by Paul Arbaje, senior energy analyst at UCS.
“Yet again, Entergy is rushing through the regulatory review process and evading public scrutiny so it can profit off Meta’s risky data center project. By agreeing to fast-track this process, the Commission is setting itself up to inadequately examine the billions of dollars in costs and potentially severe grid reliability risks that will ultimately be shouldered by surrounding households and businesses.
“As our recent report makes clear, a rapid buildout of data centers in Louisiana seriously threatens electricity affordability, public health and climate stability. Without strong ratepayer protections, Louisianans are at risk of footing the bill for billions of dollars in costs while Meta and Entergy reap the profits. The LPSC must slow down to fully assess this new proposal and make a decision informed by the best interests of all ratepayers and the best available science.”
The Commission voted to make its final decision during an upcoming December 2026 meeting. Commission members are also considering forgoing a formal recommendation by the administrative law judge overseeing the case, as well as the request for proposals process designed to ensure that utilities are using the lowest-cost resources available. This would mirror the review process for the three-plant proposal approved in August 2025 and is aligned with the new “Lightning Amendment,” which leaves ratepayers vulnerable to covering large portions of electricity system costs triggered by data centers.