Meta’s Planned Louisiana Data Center Fuels Pollution Worries (1)

Backers of Meta’s proposed $10 billion data center in northeast Louisiana say the project will transform its rural surroundings for the better. Environmentalists are skeptical.

At 4 million square feet, the artificial intelligence development announced last week will be Meta Platforms Inc.’s largest data center so far. Three new natural gas power plants are in the queue to power the operation.

The power plants, to be constructed by Entergy Corp., will be “combined cycle combustion turbines,” which are more efficient than other types of gas-fired plants. But environmental groups are questioning the ethics of burning more fossil fuels to power a private, energy-intensive facility—especially since residential customers could wind up footing the construction bill through rate increases.

“There is absolutely no reason for residential customers to pay for power plants that they’re not going to use,” said Jessica Hendricks, state policy director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

Two of the new power plants will be located in the 20,000-person community of Richland Parish, which environmentalists say could endanger the local population. Living near fossil fuel-fired power plants has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, cancer, and other health complications, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Data center investment driven by the rise of artificial intelligence is responsible for a large chunk of the nation’s expected 15.8% increase in electricity demand by 2029, according to a new report from Grid Strategies LLC, a power sector consulting firm.

But building gas plants as a “knee-jerk reaction” to skyrocketing demand is the wrong way to approach the problem, said Jackson Morris, director of state power sector policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Companies like Meta should instead contract with clean energy developers and shield parish residents from high electric bills in the meantime, whether through home weatherization funding or something else, he said.

Meta pledged in a press release to “match its electricity use with 100% clean and renewable energy,” add at least 1,500 megawatts of new renewable energy to the grid, and give up to $1 million per year to Entergy’s low-income ratepayer support program.

The company’s agreement with Entergy covers the costs associated with serving the data center, according to a Meta spokesperson. The tech giant will also disclose its energy use for the facility annually, the spokesperson said.

Entergy said its proposed plants have the potential to one day run on 100% hydrogen and use carbon capture technology. Both companies also said they were open to exploring nuclear energy, solar, and wind as future power sources.

Hendricks said she’d like to see the company take its promises from an informal pledge to some sort of legally binding commitment.

“We want to make sure that we as Louisianans are benefiting,” she said.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) touted Meta’s data center, which is scheduled to break ground this month and take at least five years to build, as a “game changer” for the state’s economy.

AI-specific data centers are increasingly being pitched in rural communities due to their sheer size, said Tim Cywinski, communications director of the Sierra Club’s chapter in Virginia, which has the more data centers than any other US state.

“AI is going to be built on the backs of poor, rural areas,” he said.

The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.