Louisiana's largest newspaper threw Meta a party. Weeks later, the state sealed Meta's power data.

The dinner, and who was in the room

The invitation led with the host: "Georges Media Group and Meta invite you to a special evening." The fine print promised "the highest standards of ethics and transparency." ¹ The dinner, moved to a New Orleans restaurant John Georges partly owns, seated Gov. Jeff Landry, who had personally signed a non-disclosure agreement with Meta's data center subsidiary in April 2024, and Rep. Julia Letlow, later shown to have bought Meta stock after signing her own NDA. ¹

Entergy executives came as well. Their utility wants ten gas plants feeding the complex: three in the first phase, seven more awaiting a December vote at the Public Service Commission. ¹²³

The prize is a Meta licensing deal. The bill lands on ratepayers.

The host owns Louisiana's largest newspaper, and the motive is undisguised: Georges has spent more than a year chasing a Meta licensing contract like the $150 million deal News Corp signed this year↗. ¹ The bill he is not chasing lands on ratepayers. A commission consultant found in June that the deal, if approved, would add $8 to $13 a month to Entergy Louisiana residential bills. ²

What the August vote sealed

Weeks after the dinner, the commission voted 3-1 on 12 August to overturn its own judge's order↗. The 10 July ruling had required Meta to show how it calculated Hyperion's 1,000 promised permanent jobs and 5 gigawatts of demand, more electricity than the city of New Orleans uses, for a projected $50 billion campus. ²³

The audit trail stays sealed while the costs do not: Georges' own paper has reported $470 million in transmission and substation costs falling to ratepayers. ¹ An Entergy vice president drafted the motion that settled the commission's review of the first three gas plants. ⁴

Arkansas needed a lawsuit, and lost

One state over, the same corporate parent fought this in open court. Entergy Arkansas sued two newspapers and a resident in September over records obtained through a public-records request. ⁵ They showed Google's payments for its $4 billion West Memphis campus: $526 million toward a solar plant and $190 million for transmission, inside a contract Entergy values above $2.1 billion over 20 years↗. ⁶ A federal judge refused to block publication, and the utility dropped the case on 16 September↗. ⁵

In Arkansas, Entergy needed a federal lawsuit to hide an AI power bill, and it lost. In Louisiana, nobody needed one.

A governor's NDA, a congresswoman's stock, a sealed jobs file

The Louisiana record explains why. The governor is under NDA with Meta's subsidiary; the congresswoman bought its stock after signing hers; the utility drafted the regulator's motion; the jobs file is sealed; and the paper of record's owner is angling to sell Meta a license. ¹⁴ On that record, every institution that could audit the Hyperion bill sits on Meta's side of the confidentiality wall, and the auditing so far has fallen to the two newsrooms that broke the dinner story. ¹

The defense, and the December vote

Meta spokesman Andy Stone offered one line: the company "has developed sponsorship opportunities with media companies for well over a decade." ¹ Pressing the reporters for favorable coverage, he pointed to Richland Parish teacher bonuses of up to $50,000 as a project benefit; the deal separately carries a 100% exemption from local and state sales tax on most data center costs. ¹

Georges says advertising never influences coverage. His staffers say a column questioning the Meta relationship was killed, and that only the Meta-sponsored videos ran with comments disabled; his editor says he has never felt pressure. ¹

On Friday, the Alliance for Affordable Energy and the Union of Concerned Scientists asked a state court to reinstate the subpoena↗. ⁴ The commission votes in December on the seven remaining plants. ³

Georges, whose newsroom is down two-thirds to about 450 people, is waiting by the phone: "Put me in the game, coach." ¹ The meter is already running for everyone else.