The Louisiana Public Service Commission will decide Wednesday whether Meta can keep its records on its artificial intelligence data center project in Richland Parish secret from the public. 

Environmental and consumer groups have pressed state utility regulators to require Meta provide more information about its massive data center taking shape at its Hyperion campus in Richland Parish. The facility has contracted with Entergy to meet its electricity needs, starting with three natural gas-powered turbines the utility will build to power the data center. Meta has since announced it intends to expand Hyperion, which will require another seven power-generating units. 

The Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Union of Concern Scientists, the Sierra Club and other organizations want more firm figures from Meta before the Public Service Commission gives a green light for Entergy to build out all that power infrastructure. The groups subpoenaed Meta for information that backs up its prior statements on local investment, job creation and electricity needs. They contend Entergy has never adequately explained how Meta came up with those figures in its applications to the Public Service Commission to construct new turbines for Hyperion. 

The groups also are concerned utility customers might eventually bear the costs of the additional power generation if the data centers back out their agreements at some point in the future.   

“With overall future demand for AI services remaining uncertain, Meta backing out is a possibility that regulators must rigorously take into account,” Paul Arbaje, senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a news release Monday. “Ratepayers didn’t prompt these huge expenses, so at a bare minimum Entergy’s shareholders should have to share this risk, and the LPSC should make that expectation clear at the outset. … If Entergy is making a huge bet that all these costs will be worth it, the company should be betting with its own money, not ratepayer money.”

A PSC administrative law judge ruled last month that Meta needed to provide the records the advocacy groups are seeking. Following the state’s utility regulatory protocol, Meta has appealed the judge’s ruling to the commission.

Meta contends the information being sought amounts to trade secrets which would put the company at a competitive disadvantage if made public. Numerous state and local officials, including Gov. Jeff Landry and Congresswoman Julia Letlow, have signed nondisclosure agreements to conceal their knowledge of the deal.           

The Public Service Commission will decide in December on Entergy’s proposal for seven more power turbines to service Meta.

In a separate item on Wednesday’s agenda, commissioners will consider charging all major utility customers a new monthly fee to finance studies on nuclear energy. 

Chairman Eric Skrmetta, R-Metairie, is asking commissioners to approve a 20-cent monthly fee for customers of the state’s three largest electric utilities — Entergy Louisiana, Cleco and SWEPCO. Ratepayers for Entergy’s New Orleans subsidiary, which its city council regulates, would not see the fee on their bills. 

In March, Skrmetta directed the PSC staff to look into ways to get utility companies to consider adding more nuclear power and new technologies such as small modular reactors and microreactors to their generation portfolios. Money from the fee would give utility companies extra revenue to pay for feasibility studies, potential site assessments, economic modeling and other early-stage work to determine if nuclear power generation is cost-effective in Louisiana. 

President Donald Trump has called on state leaders to promote nuclear energy, and Louisiana was one of a handful recently tapped to be part of a federal initiative to encourage industry investment. Skrmetta has co-chaired Trump’s campaign in Louisiana for the past three elections.

Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis, D-Baton Rouge, said he’s not opposed to the idea of studying nuclear technologies but thinks it’s a bad time to make Louisiana residents shoulder more costs amid rising energy prices and high economic inflation.

Louisiana has some of the highest poverty rates in the country. If a 20-cent tariff is a small cost for the average ratepayer, then it’s an even smaller cost for a $50 billion utility company and would be nothing for them to pay for it, Lewis said. 

Utilities could even split the cost with their bigger customers such as Meta and Amazon, he added.

The proposed tariff would last for five years with an option to renew it and would generate an estimated $4 million per year, according to PSC records.

Skrmetta, who was recently appointed to a position with the U.S. Department of Energy, did not return calls Tuesday.