re: Companies are increasingly eyeing Louisiana for data center projects

I love using AI for emails, I go back and edit to make it sound less canned usually but it’s still a huge time saver for client emails

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And a lot of those contractors are brought in from other states bc they have expertise in constructing the data centers. These data centers absolutely destroy small cities and towns.

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So it should work out just like the movie credits. A couple local caterers and security companies prosper, and the state touts the benefits of economic multipliers to justify the expenses.

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It's not outside the realm of possibility. A big problem we have here is hurricanes, tornados and the odd ice event taking out power lines. At the very least, Entergy is going to need to reinforce grid resilience at least around those sites.

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What do you think that actually looks like? Entergy is building two of the three power plants close to the Meta facility. Maybe the transmission from those plants to the data center is resilient, but that accomplishes jack shite for the rest of the state.

I’m not anti-AI by any means, but this power generation issue is a big one IMO:
- Entergy and Meta enter into a special contract for supply of power to the state center. The only people outside of those companies who have actually seen the contract are on the PSC, and they’re under an NDA.
- Entergy is guaranteed a return on their capital investment, so if the Meta contract doesn’t cover that full capital cost plus ROI (and based on Entergy’s own statements, it doesn’t), the public will be on the hook for the difference.
- Since Entergy and Meta both know that Entergy’s position as a public utility means their profits are guaranteed, both parties are incentivized to negotiate the lowest contract value that they can sneak through the PSC.. especially considering they know the contract details will be kept secret.

The entire reason we have established tariffs (rates) for different types of utility customers is to ensure that the costs are divided up fairly and with transparency. But all of a sudden we let Entergy negotiate a deal behind closed doors with a customer who needs power equivalent to 20% of Entergy’s existing generation capacity in the entire state? It’s absurd and people should be raising hell with the PSC considering the horrible precedent it sets for the future.

The first AI stood up in LA will tell them major hurricanes are a threat to AI data centers in LA.

Cheap land compared to other areas, they built one near us in north DFW a few years back, it's huge (230,000 ft(2))


NTT's data center campus in Garland is spread across a 42-acre site, which can accommodate up to five interconnected data center buildings. The campus, located at 2008 Lookout Drive, is the site of the NTT Global Data Centers Americas' Dallas TX1 Data Center and subsequent facilities.

That land was probably 40-50K an acre

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The alternative is for Louisiana to say no thank you and walk away from billions of dollars of investment in the next wave of technology that is going to define our economy for a century.

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Or the state could be leveraging it's access to abundant water, cheap land, and cheap energy; instead of giving it away via sweetheart deals that have significant costs passed onto existing Entergy customers.

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Will this be similar to shale and lignite? Bring in workers from outside so only big landowners and hotel owners benefit? Louisiana is still run like a third world country while Texas thrives.

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Would you employ most of our population?

We don’t need this here. They can move on along. But yes. If the officials were dumb enough to sell us out, we should benefit somehow.