Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Thursday to protect the state’s household utility customers from covering the costs of power-hungry data centers. The order describes data centers as providing a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’ to spur economic growth in rural communities.

Data Center Development and Utility Costs

The order directs Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois to come up with new requirements within 90 days for any data center facility to claim a state incentive, the Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption. The requirements must follow a general framework that balances the interests of investors with those of Louisiana residents, specifically with regards to the cost of electricity.

A recent analysis from consultant Lane Sisung for the Louisiana Public Service Commission predicts Entergy Louisiana’s 1.1 million ratepayers will see significant increases in their monthly bills if the company moves forward with buying an aging power plant in Southeast Texas. The $1.8 billion purchase price would be more than three times than when it last changed hands in 2024, and Sisung wrote that the increase is ‘predominantly attributable’ to the power needs for Meta’s Hyperion data center being built in Northeast Louisiana.

Landry issued the executive order on the heels of recent news about the skyrocketing costs of power plants driven primarily by data centers. The governor said he had not changed his mind about Entergy’s proposal to buy the Cottonwood power plant in Newton County, Texas.

Reaction to the Executive Order

The Alliance for Affordable Energy, a utility consumer advocacy group, supports the order’s goal of protecting ratepayers. In a phone interview, policy director Jackson Voss said Landry pressed the Public Service Commission last year to truncate its usual vetting process to quickly approve Entergy’s power agreement with Meta.

The Sierra Club described the governor’s executive order as ‘hollow’ and with too few guardrails to protect utility customers. ‘Gov. Landry wants to have his cake and eat it too, but it’s totally out of touch to welcome this massive data center boom and expect concerned Louisianans to go along with it,’ said Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, Sierra Club Delta chapter chair.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.