Governor Jeff Landry signs an executive order that he says will ensure that residents and local businesses are not paying for the massive amount of energy needed to power AI data centers. Landry says the order will require data center companies to follow a new set of guidelines in order to qualify for tax breaks.
“Can you meet the demand? That’s number one, okay? Understand that we’re not placing it on the ratepayer,” Landry said.
Data Center companies will be required to submit evidence to the Louisiana Department of Economic Development that they are able to pay for their own electricity needs.
There are four data center campuses under construction in Louisiana, and Landry says more artificial intelligence centers could be on the way, but not at the expense of the ratepayer.
“We’re like finding the prettiest girl at the dance, do you know what I mean? Everybody wants to dance with us. But guess what? Before they can even ask us out, they’ve got to go look at this executive order, and they’ve got to meet those demands,” Landry explained.
The governor signed the Louisiana Ratepayer and Community Protection Initiative a week after an Advocate newspaper report that said Entergy was planning to purchase a power plant in Texas to help power the Meta data center in Richland Parish. The acquisition would cost the average Entergy residential ratepayer $8 a month.
Landry says data centers can do business in Louisiana, but they cannot pass along costs to customers and that’s what his executive order ensures.
“Whatever we do, we cannot lay the additional generation cost on the backs of the ratepayers. That’s what the problem is on the East Coast,” Landry noted.
Entergy says its plan to purchase the Texas power plant was part of its supply plan before Meta was a potential customer. Entergy Louisiana also says it’s committed to delivering an estimated $2.8 billion in customer savings over the next two decades.
The executive order can be viewed at gov.louisiana.gov.
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