Louisianians Deserve Transparency: Secret NDA Deals Where the People Pay the Price
The Landry Administration has been making huge deals with corporations behind closed doors. To keep these deals secret, the state has been using nondisclosure agreements, legal contracts called NDAs, that stop people from sharing what they know. More than 50 elected officials have signed them. The constituents, residents, don’t find out about these deals until after they are done.
One of the biggest fights is over Meta's $50 billion data center, designated for Richland Parish. When Meta and Entergy tried to push it without the public's knowledge or approval, the Alliance for Affordable Energy (a member of LAFS) refused to stand by. The consumer advocacy group teamed up with the Union of Concerned Scientists. It was represented by Earthjustice to subpoena Meta for the records behind its claims - the projected job numbers and its gargantuan electricity demand. Entergy has been using its own figures to justify building the new gas plants, but it has never explained where the numbers came from.
Hiding the Ball Until It’s Already in the Goal
The project was announced in 2024 as costing $10 billion with at least 500 permanent jobs. Now, it’s described as a $50 billion campus, five times the initial cost, while the underlying job and power figures have remained largely hidden.
To power it, Entergy Louisiana wants to build a fleet of new natural gas plants (reporting variously cites the buildout as seven new turbines on top of three originally planned, i.e., 10 total), plus battery storage and transmission. The disclosed costs of this package would run around $13 billion or more.
Meta and Entergy insist Meta will pay for its own power and that residents won't see higher bills. But a PSC adviser's own analysis undercuts that: consultant Lane Sisung filed a June analysis finding that, if approved, the deal would raise the average Entergy Louisiana customer's bill by $8 to $13 per month.
A PSC judge agreed the public deserved answers and granted the subpoena, but Meta fought back. And in August, the commissioners overruled the judge 3-1, allowing Meta to keep the details sealed. The Alliance didn't soften its message. As executive director Logan Burke put it, "The process and the purpose are clear: Hide the ball until it's already in the goal."
At the same time, new reporting from Drew Hawkins revealed Entergy was writing its own regulators' decisions. Additionally, a member of Congress was buying Meta stock after signing one of these secret agreements: U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) signed an NDA with Laidley LLC, a Meta shell company, on June 29, 2024, giving her access to confidential details about the data center. Within months, she bought stock in Meta and Nvidia (whose chips power data centers), and six months after signing, she spoke at the project's public announcement, championing it for her district.
The fight isn't over: the Commission's decision on the gas plants themselves is set for December 16, and the Alliance and its partners are still weighing whether to take the transparency battle to state court.
Additional Sources:
Louisiana Illuminator: Public Service Commission Can Demand Transparency