State regulators will decide next month whether to add a small fee to monthly electricity bills from Louisiana’s three major utility companies. The Public Service Commission postponed a vote planned Wednesday on what they’ve labeled a nuclear tariff. It would add a 20-cent fee to the monthly bills of all Entergy Louisiana, Cleco and SWEPCO […]
Social media giant Meta gets to keep records for its projected $50 billion data center secret after state utility regulators overturned a judge’s order to make them public. The Louisiana Public Service Commission voted 3-1 Wednesday to overrule its administrative judge’s order that required Meta to disclose how it calculated publicized job projections and electricity […]
The Louisiana Public Service Commission will decide Wednesday whether Meta can keep its records on its artificial intelligence data center project in Richland Parish secret from the public. Environmental and consumer groups have pressed state utility regulators to require Meta provide more information about its massive data center taking shape at its Hyperion campus in […]
SHREVEPORT, La. — Shreveport City Council Chairwoman Tabatha Taylor is calling for potential criminal charges against the owners of Northwood Two Apartments after residents reportedly endured a power outage during extreme summer heat, leaving some tenants without electricity and at least one resident hospitalized.
For months, Louisiana residents have watched as major decisions about economic development and the state’s energy future have taken place largely out of public view. They have involved the use of non-disclosure agreements and backdoor proceedings among state and local leaders, Entergy and Meta to create a $50 billion artificial intelligence data center in Richland […]
BATON ROUGE, La. — A legal fight over Louisiana's largest economic development project is heading to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, where a judge will decide whether Meta must disclose key details about its $50 billion Hyperion data center planned for Richland Parish.The hearing comes just days after a New York Times investigation detailed how Louisiana officials secured the project through tax incentives, nondisclosure agreements and private negotiations.The report found state leaders rewrote a tax incentive bill during the 2024 legislative session to help land the project and kept negotiations confidential while competing with other states for the investment.Gov. Jeff Landry has defended the process, saying the data center will create about 1,000 permanent jobs, thousands of construction jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity for northeast Louisiana.However, questions remain about how many jobs the facility will ultimately create and how much electricity it will consume once operational.The Alliance for Affordable Energy is pushing for those details to be made public, arguing Louisiana residents and utility customers deserve greater transparency before the project moves forward. The organization says the information is critical because of the potential impact the facility could have on the state's electric grid and utility rates.Meta has been subpoenaed to disclose its projected job numbers and energy demand but maintains it is not required to release that information.An administrative law judge with the Louisiana Public Service Commission is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday to determine whether the company must comply with the subpoena.The case comes as two of the commission's five elected seats are on the ballot this November, placing additional attention on the agency responsible for regulating Louisiana's utility companies.
(The Center Square) - The Louisiana Public Service Commission has bypassed its own competitive bidding rules to greenlight a 100 Megawatt battery storage facility in Amite, according to a recent regulatory filing.
