Friend,

Meta is building its biggest data center in Louisiana – and to power it, they persuaded the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) to approve three new methane gas plants.

But what Meta didn’t tell the LPSC – or anyone in Louisiana – is that their undisclosed funding structure for this project could leave everyday Louisianans paying millions extra on their utility bills if Meta abandons the data center. It’s a model that reporters have called risky and aggressive.

Here’s how the structure works:
* Meta is building a massive, $27 billion data center in Richland Parish, LA, that will need an additional 2,000 megawatts of electricity.
* To pay for all this electricity, Meta created a “special purpose vehicle” – a type of holding company – named Laidley, LLC , that it would use to negotiate and pay for its electricity needs.
* Then, Laidley went to Entergy – the utility company in Louisiana – and made a contract to pay for three new methane-powered gas plants over the next 15 years.
* Entergy needed the approval of the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) to build the gas plants. And the LPSC cited the 15-year contract with Laidley – supposedly backed by its parent company, Meta – as an assurance that Louisiana ratepayers would not be stuck with the bill for the gas plants.
* But on the day that the LSPC approved Entergy’s new gas plants, Meta created a new special purpose vehicle called Beignet Investors and made it the parent company of Laidley , instead of Meta .
* And, under the terms of its agreement with Beignet Investors , Meta can back out of its commitment to the data center in as little as four years.

It appears that Meta was planning to change the financial structure of the project for months and was just waiting for LPSC approval before taking any “public” action on the financial structure change.

What does this mean for the public?

Gas plants cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take 30 years to pay back their construction costs.
If this data center is not profitable, Meta has set up a financial deal that enables it to walk away and leave those costs to the public. Entergy customers could see billions of dollars on electricity bills.

A new kind of financing maneuver:

Meta also set up an unusual ownership structure over the data center that limits its ownership to just 20%, giving it additional freedom to walk away.

As reported in The Wall Street Journal, other companies are borrowing or plan to borrow enormous sums using similar financial setups to the one Meta just deployed.

What is the environmental impact, and what is Earthjustice doing?

Earthjustice has submitted a motion asking the LSPC to investigate this arrangement and the changes to the financing structure.
The LSPC plays a significant role in how this will play out, and it is supposed to act in the best interests of Louisianans. We’re raising public awareness to hold it accountable.

These gas plants were already going to lock Louisiana into decades of dirty energy, with harmful health effects for people who live near the plants. And now, people in Louisiana could pay a steep financial cost too.
What you can do:

Share this story, stay tuned for future opportunities to take action, and if you are able, donate to support Earthjustice as we continue to fight against shady data center deals that rely on dirty fossil fuels.

DONATE TODAY [[link removed]]

Want to learn more?

Read our AI data center explainer ([link removed]) or our expert report on electricity generation. ([link removed])

Sincerely,

The Team at Earthjustice

************************************************************************************************
(c)2026 Earthjustice | 415-217-2000 | [email protected]
180 Steuart St. #194330, San Francisco, CA 94105

If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .