Louisiana puts Meta's gigawatt on trial, and Meta won't take the stand
Entergy's Project Evest, seven gas plants and 250 miles of line built around one customer, faces cross-examination in Baton Rouge from 7 October, with Meta absent from the witness list. Nineteen days after North Carolina rejected a Duke gas plant on unproven data-center demand, Louisiana's ratepayers get the same test.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The charge: one word, necessary
Baton Rouge opens a three-day evidentiary hearing on 7 October, and it will run like a trial: witnesses cross-examined before an administrative law judge in LPSC Docket U-37882, with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Sierra Club and industrial customers testing whether Entergy Louisiana's build-out for Meta's $50 billion Richland Parish campus is necessary 12. Meta is not on the witness list. The demand forecast, which Entergy puts above 1 gigawatt, is the utility's alone to defend 1.
Seven plants for one tenant
Project Evest is seven combined-cycle gas units, four beside the Richland Parish campus and three at the Big Cajun site in Pointe Coupee Parish, plus three battery-storage projects, a new substation and more than 250 miles of 500-kilovolt and 230-kilovolt line 1. It stacks on Project Laidley, approved in August 2025 with three gas units and a 60-mile line, two already in construction 1. Meta lifted the campus from $10 billion to $50 billion on 13 July 2026, aiming at 5 gigawatts of computing capacity by 2036 3.
Capex has outrun operating cash in six of the last eight quarters
- Capex
- Operating cash flow
Data
| Capex | Operating cash flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 '24 | $1.56B | $1.56B |
| Q4 '24 | $1.95B | $1.38B |
| Q1 '25 | $1.75B | $0.54B |
| Q2 '25 | $2.05B | $1.26B |
| Q3 '25 | $1.93B | $2.14B |
| Q4 '25 | $2.22B | $1.22B |
| Q1 '26 | $2.4B | $0.83B |
| Q2 '26 | $2.83B | $1.89B |
The company's exhibits
Chief executive Phillip May testified the expansion needs infrastructure "beyond those approved in August 2025," and Entergy argues Meta's payments will exceed the new assets' annual cost while the plants serve the whole system, not one tenant 1. Governor Jeff Landry puts the customer savings at $2.6 billion over two decades; Commissioner Davante Lewis, who has challenged the $21.37 billion Entergy filing behind the build, argues the accelerated review lacks customary safeguards 3.
The number nobody can inspect
The consumer groups' subpoena for Meta's own jobs, investment and demand records failed, and Entergy's September concession opening protected case files to seven more advocates did not reach them. "That information is not in the record and Entergy says they do not have it," the Alliance said 5. A records review separately found an Entergy vice president wrote the motion a commissioner read as his own to approve the 2025 settlement 6. The load at the center of the case has never been independently verified.
A precedent, thirteen days old
North Carolina's regulators denied Duke's $584 million, 255-megawatt turbine on 18 September, calling anticipated data-center load "insufficiently reliable for the Commission to act at this point" 7. Days later, the Energy Department paid Entergy (NYSE: ETR) $13.7 million to squeeze at least 25% more transfer capability out of 1,125 miles of existing line, part of a $1.9 billion program claiming more than 23 gigawatts without new plants 8910.
The verdict watch
The commission takes the case up at its 16 December meeting 5. Shareholders carry a capex program outrunning its cash flow, Meta (NASDAQ: META) keeps the secrecy, and Louisiana ratepayers hold the tail risk if the tenant leaves before its 20-year contract ends 43. Duke (NYSE: DUK) has already shown what doubt costs a utility. Baton Rouge prices it on 16 December.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
