The plan is part of what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would be \u201ca defining year for AI.\u201d On Threads<\/a>, Zuckerberg boasted that his company was \u201cbuilding a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan,\u201d posting a map of Manhattan along with the data center overlaid. Zuckerberg went on to say that over the coming years, AI \u201cwill drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership. Let’s go build! \ud83d\udcaa\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) on Threads<\/p>\n This will be a defining year for AI. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model, and we\u2019ll build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D efforts. To power this, Meta is building a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan.<\/p>\n What Zuckerberg did not mention is that “Let’s go build” refers\u00a0 not only to the massive data center but also three new Meta-subsidized, gas power plants and a transmission line to fuel it serviced by Entergy Louisiana, the region\u2019s energy monopoly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Key details about Meta\u2019s investments with the data center remain vague, and Meta\u2019s contracts with Entergy are largely cloaked from public scrutiny. But what is known is the $10 billion data center has been positioned as an enormous economic boon for the area\u2014one that politicians bent over backward to facilitate\u2014and Meta said it will invest $200 million into \u201clocal roads and water infrastructure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A January report from <\/a>NOLA.com<\/a> said that the the state had rewritten zoning laws, promised to change a law so that it no longer had to put state property up for public bidding, and rewrote what was supposed to be a tax incentive for broadband internet meant to bridge the digital divide so that it was only an incentive for data centers, all with the goal of luring in Meta.<\/p>\n But Entergy Louisiana\u2019s residential customers, who live in one of the poorest regions of the state, will see their utility bills increase to pay for Meta\u2019s energy infrastructure, according to Entergy\u2019s application. Entergy estimates that amount will be small and will only cover a transmission line, but advocates for energy affordability say the costs could balloon depending on whether Meta agrees to finish paying for its three gas plants 15 years from now. The short-term rate increases will be debated in a public hearing before state regulators that has not yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n The Alliance for Affordable Energy<\/a> called it a \u201cblack hole of energy use,\u201d and said \u201cto give perspective on how much electricity the Meta project will use: Meta\u2019s energy needs are roughly 2.3x the power needs of Orleans Parish \u2026 it\u2019s like building the power impact of a large city overnight in the middle of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n 404 Media reached out to Entergy for comment but did not receive a response. <\/p>\n By 2030, Entergy\u2019s electricity prices are projected to increase 90 percent from where they were in 2018<\/a>, although the company attributes much of that to damage to infrastructure from hurricanes. The state already has a high energy cost burden in part because of a storm damage to infrastructure, and balmy heat made worse by climate change that drives air conditioner use. The state’s homes largely are not energy efficient, with many porous older buildings that don\u2019t retain heat in the winter or remain cool in the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don’t just have high utility bills, you also have high repair costs, you have high insurance premiums, and it all contributes to housing insecurity,\u201d said Andreanecia Morris, a member of Housing Louisiana, which is opposed to Entergy\u2019s gas plant application. She believes Meta\u2019s data center will make it worse. And Louisiana residents have reasons to distrust Entergy when it comes to passing off costs of new infrastructure: in 2018, the company\u2019s New Orleans subsidiary was caught paying actors<\/a> to testify on behalf of a new gas plant. \u201cThe fees for the gas plant have all been borne by the people of New Orleans,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n In its application to build new gas plants<\/a> and in public testimony, Entergy says the cost of Meta\u2019s data center to customers will be minimal and has even suggested Meta\u2019s presence will make their bills go down. But Meta\u2019s commitments are temporary, many of Meta\u2019s assurances are not binding, and crucial details about its deal with Entergy are shielded from public view, a structural issue with state energy regulators across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n AI data centers are being approved at a breakneck pace across the country, particularly in poorer regions where they are pitched as economic development projects to boost property tax receipts, bring in jobs and where they\u2019re offered sizable tax breaks. Data centers typically don\u2019t hire many people, though, with most jobs in security and janitorial work, along with temporary construction work. And the costs to the utility\u2019s other customers can remain hidden because of a lack of scrutiny and the limited power of state energy regulators. Many data centers\u2014like the one Meta is building in Holly Ridge\u2014are being powered by fossil fuels. This has led to respiratory illness<\/a> and other health risks and emitting greenhouse gasses that fuel climate change. In Memphis, a massive data center built to launch a chatbot for Elon Musks\u2019 AI company is powered by smog-spewing methane turbines<\/a>, in a region that leads the state for asthma rates.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of how big these new loads are, it’s pretty astounding and kind of a new ball game,\u201d said Paul Arbaje, an energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is opposing Entergy\u2019s proposal to build three new gas-powered plants in Louisiana to power Meta\u2019s data center.<\/p>\n Entergy Louisiana submitted a request to the state\u2019s regulatory body to approve the construction of the new gas-powered plants that would create 2.3 gigawatts of power and cost $3.2 billion in the 1440 acre Franklin Farms megasite<\/a> in Holly Ridge, an unincorporated community of Richland Parish. It is the first big data center announced since Louisiana passed large tax breaks for data centers last summer.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n In its application to the public utility commission<\/a> for gas plants, Entergy says that Meta has a planned investment of $5 billion in the region to build the gas plants in Richland Parish, Louisiana, where it claims in its application that the data center will employ 300-500 people with an average salary of $82,000 in what it points out is \u201ca region of the state that has long struggled with a lack of economic development and high levels of poverty.\u201d\u00a0 Meta\u2019s official projection is that it will employ more than 500 people once the data center is operational<\/a>. Entergy plans for the gas plants to be online by December 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n In testimony, Entergy officials refused to answer specific questions about job numbers, saying that the numbers are projections based on public statements from Meta.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Louisiana\u2019s Economic Development told 404 Media in an email that Meta \u201cis contractually obligated to employ at least 500 full-time employees in order to receive incentive benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about jobs, Meta pointed to a public facing list of its data centers,<\/a> many of which the company says employ more than 300 people. A spokesperson said that the projections for the Richland Parish site are based on the scale of the 4 million square foot data center. The spokesperson said the jobs will include \u201cengineering and other technical positions to operational roles and our onsite culinary staff.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if its job commitments are binding, the spokesperson declined to answer, saying, \u201cWe worked closely with Richland Parish and Louisiana Economic Development on mutually beneficial agreements that will support long-term growth in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n Others are not as convinced. \u201cShow me a data center that has that level of employment,\u201d says Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy in Louisiana.<\/p>\n Entergy has argued the new power plants are necessary to satiate the energy need from Meta\u2019s massive hyperscale data center, which will be Meta\u2019s largest data center and potentially the largest data center in the United States. It amounts to a 25 percent increase in Entergy Louisiana\u2019s current load, according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Entergy requested an exemption from a state law meant to ensure that it develops energy at the lowest cost by issuing a public request for proposals, claiming in its application and testimony that this would slow them down and cause them to lose their contracts with Meta.<\/p>\n Meta has agreed to subsidize the first 15 years of payments for construction of the gas plants, but the plant\u2019s construction is being financed over 30 years. At the 15 year mark, its contract with Entergy ends. At that point, Meta may decide it doesn\u2019t need three gas plants worth of energy because computing power has become more efficient or because its AI products are not profitable enough. Louisiana residents would be stuck with the remaining bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not that they’re paying the cost, they’re just paying the mortgage for the time that they’re under contract,\u201d explained Devi Glick, an electric utility analyst with Synapse Energy.<\/p>\n When asked about the costs for the gas plants, a Meta spokesperson said, \u201cMeta works with our utility partners to ensure we pay for the full costs of the energy service to our data centers.\u201d The spokesperson said that any rate increases will be reviewed by the Louisiana Public Service Commission. These applications, called rate cases, are typically submitted by energy companies based on a broad projection of new infrastructure projects and energy needs.<\/p>\n Meta has technically not finalized its agreement with Entergy but Glick believes the company has already invested enough in the endeavor that it is unlikely to pull out now. Other companies have been reconsidering their gamble on AI data centers: Microsoft reversed course on centers requiring a combined 2 gigawatts of energy in the U.S. and Europe. Meta swept in to take on some of the leases, according to Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n And in the short-term, Entergy is asking residential customers to help pay for a new transmission line for the gas plants at a cost of more than $500 million, according to Entergy\u2019s application to Louisiana\u2019s public utility board. In its application, the energy giant said customers\u2019 bills will only rise by $1.66 a month to offset the costs of the transmission lines. Meta, for its part, said it will pay up to $1 million a year into a fund for low-income customers<\/a>. When asked about the costs of the new transmission line, a Meta spokesperson said,\u00a0 \u201cLike all other new customers joining the transmission system, one of the required transmission upgrades will provide significant benefits to the broader transmission system. This transmission upgrade is further in distance from the data center, so it was not wholly assigned to Meta.\u201d<\/p>\n When Entergy was questioned in public testimony on whether the new transmission line would need to be built even without Meta\u2019s massive data center, the company declined to answer, saying the question was hypothetical.<\/p>\n Some details of Meta\u2019s contract with Entergy have been made available to groups legally intervening in Entergy\u2019s application, meaning that they can submit testimony or request data from the company. These parties include the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.<\/p>\n But Meta\u2014which will become Entergy\u2019s largest customer by far and whose presence will impact the entire energy grid\u2014is not required to answer questions or divulge any information to the energy board or any other parties. The Alliance for Affordable Energy and Union of Concerned Scientists attempted to make Meta a party<\/a> to Entergy\u2019s application\u2014which would have required it to share information and submit to questioning\u2014but a judge denied that motion on April 4.<\/a><\/p>\n The public utility commissions that approve energy infrastructure in most states are the main democratic lever to assure that data centers don\u2019t negatively impact consumers. But they have no oversight over the tech companies running the data centers or the private companies that build the centers, leaving residential customers, consumer advocates and environmentalists in the dark. This is because they approve the power plants that fuel the data centers but do not have jurisdiction over the data centers themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is kind of a relic of the past where there might be some energy service agreement between some large customer and the utility company, but it wouldn’t require a whole new energy facility,\u201d Arbaje said.<\/p>\n A research paper by Ari Peskoe and Eliza Martin published in March<\/a> looked at 50 regulatory cases involving data centers, and found that tech companies were pushing some of the costs onto utility customers through secret contracts with the utilities. The paper found that utilities were often parroting rhetoric from AI boosting politicians\u2014including President Biden\u2014to suggest that pushing through permitting for AI data center infrastructure is a matter of national importance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe implication is that there\u2019s no time to act differently,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n In written testimony<\/a> sent to the public service commission, Entergy CEO Phillip May argued that the company had to bypass a legally required\u00a0 request for proposals and requirement to find the cheapest energy sources for the sake of winning over Meta.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a prospective customer is choosing between two locations, and if that customer believes that location A can more quickly bring the facility online than location B, that customer is more likely to choose to build at location A,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Entergy also argues that building new gas plants will in fact lower electricity bills because Meta, as the largest customer for the gas plants, will pay a disproportionate share of energy costs. Naturally, some are skeptical that Entergy would overcharge what will be by far their largest customer to subsidize their residential customers. \u201cThey haven’t shown any numbers to show how that’s possible,\u201d Burke says of this claim. Meta didn\u2019t have a response to this specific claim when asked by 404 Media.<\/p>\n Some details, like how much energy Meta will really need, the details of its hiring in the area and its commitment to renewables are still cloaked in mystery.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can’t ask discovery. We can’t depose. There’s no way for us to understand the agreement between them without [Meta] being at the table,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just Entergy. Big energy companies in other states are also pushing out costly fossil fuel infrastructure to court data centers and pushing costs onto captive residents. In Kentucky, the energy company that serves the Louisville area is proposing 2 new gas plants for hypothetical data centers that have yet to be contracted by any tech company. The company, PPL Electric Utilities, is also planning to offload the cost of new energy supply onto its residential customers just to become more competitive for data centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s one thing if rates go up so that customers can get increased reliability or better service, but customers shouldn’t be on the hook to pay for new power plants to power data centers,\u201d Cara Cooper, a coordinator with Kentuckians for Energy Democracy, which has intervened on an application for new gas plants there.<\/p>\n These rate increases don\u2019t take into account the downstream effects on energy; as the supply of materials and fuel are inevitably usurped by large data center load, the cost of energy goes up to compensate, with everyday customers footing the bill, according to Glick with Synapse.<\/p>\n Glick says Entergy\u2019s gas plants may not even be enough to satisfy the energy needs of Meta\u2019s massive data center. In written testimony<\/a>, Glick said that Entergy will have to either contract with a third party for more energy or build even more plants down the line to fuel Meta\u2019s massive data center.\u00a0<\/p>\n To fill the gap, Entergy has not ruled out lengthening the life of some of its coal plants, which it had planned to close in the next few years. The company already pushed back the deactivation date of one of its coal plants from 2028 to 2030.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/475093077_18487567237058217_5512252728089414808_n.webp.webp\")
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