Working on behalf of an unknown data company, an electric utility plans to build a natural gas plant in rural Louisiana

Electric utility Entergy wants to build a $3.2 billion natural gas plant in rural northeast Louisiana to provide energy for an unnamed company's data center. Some people are "calling the development a 'godsend' for the region, where one in five people live in poverty," reports Pam Radtke of Floodlight. However, environmental and economic concerns have left some officials and residents questioning the viability of a project that creates more fossil fuel emissions and could result in electricity rate hikes.

Whit Cox, regulatory director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association, told Radtke, "Entergy is proposing to add huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions." Radtke adds, "And a Louisiana utility consumer group questions whether the cost of the new plants will be passed onto residential customers."

If Entergy's construction is green-lighted by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, "Louisiana would join a cohort of states building natural gas power plants to meet the pressing demand for electricity to run data centers being built by Amazon, Meta, Google and others," Radtke reports. "Data centers are forecast to account for up to 12% of all U.S. electricity demand by 2030." 

Like other plants intended to feed energy-guzzling AI owned by data behemoths, Entergy's project targets land in small-town rural America where good-paying jobs can be hard to come by and land is cheap. "In its filings, Entergy says the data center will employ 300 to 500 people with an average salary of $82,000," Radtke adds. "The utility calls the development a 'game changer' that will bring a 'historic investment' to the region."

Even if environmental concerns are put to rest, Louisiana residents are worried the plant could drive up their utility bills. "Costs not paid by the data center, either through electricity rates or separate agreements, would be spread across Entergy’s 1.1 million Louisiana customers, although the utility says the proposed deal 'largely insulates [Entergy’s] other customers from paying for the upgrades required' for the data center," Radtke reports. "The PSC will take up the project for the first time [this month] as it considers hiring outside consultants to help evaluate the proposal."