In a meeting marked by tense moments of disagreement, the Louisiana Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved a new regulatory pathway designed to speed electricity connections for large projects like data centers.
Proponents for the change say it’s necessary for the state to stay competitive and attract major economic development projects. Critics, however, say it weakens long-standing consumer protections and could expose residents to higher utility costs.
In a 3–2 vote during its monthly meeting in Natchitoches, the commission adopted a directive from Republican Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan that allows utilities to bypass the market-based mechanism they’ve used since the 1980s to demonstrate they are pursuing the least-cost power option.
The commission’s decision comes as state leaders actively court additional data centers, projects that could reshape Louisiana’s power grid, land and water use and rate structure for decades to come.
The change aligns with Gov. Jeff Landry’s “Louisiana Lighting Speed Initiative,” an executive order issued in September directing state agencies to streamline permitting and infrastructure decisions tied to economic development.
Supporters say the new pathway will help Louisiana compete for hyperscale data centers by accelerating approvals and providing certainty around power availability.
The directive sets an eight-month timeline for commission action on large-load applications and allows exemptions from market testing if companies meet specific criteria. That criteria includes: signing a 15-year electric service agreement, demonstrating a need for additional capacity, paying at least half the cost of new infrastructure and securing a letter of support from Louisiana Economic Development — an agency that directly supports Gov. Landry’s economic goals and policies.
But consumer advocates and a lone commissioner warned the changes prioritize large utilities like Entergy and corporate customers at the expense of existing ratepayers.
“I feel we did a disservice to the people of Louisiana,” Democrat Commissioner Davante Lewis said after the vote. “I think we tied our hands behind our back, put an eyepatch over one eye and then gave a wink to the utilities and these large hyperscalers with the other eye.”
Lewis had proposed a separate directive that would have launched a broader review of how large electric loads connect to the grid, how costs are allocated and what protections should be in place for existing customers. That proposal was deferred until the commission’s January meeting in a 4-1 vote.
But shortly before that vote, District 4 Commissioner and chair Mike Francis cut Lewis off during his discussion with a consultant, leading to a tense disagreement. Other commissioners could be heard having separate conversations among themselves as Lewis posed a series of questions about the process to develop his proposal and its regulatory intent.
When Lewis began to question the basis of passing Coussan’s directive, Francis intervened to thank the consultant in an apparent attempt to dismiss him. Lewis then told Francis that was unfair, saying other commissioners had been given ample time in the same meeting to speak.
To that, District 1 Commissioner Eric Skrmetta quietly responded, “I didn’t say s---.”
“Let’s just be respectful up here,” Lewis pleaded with his fellow commissioners. “I understand we have a difference of opinion, and I understand you’re going to kill everything I want to do, but let me talk. I’m over the disrespect up here.”
Lewis said his approach was meant to examine the full scope of impacts rather than carve out a single exemption.
“He was a slice of the pie, and I was saying let’s look at the whole pie,” Lewis said, referring to Coussan’s directive. He called the suspended market-based mechanism “one of our most basic protections that we have to the Louisiana ratepayers that has existed since the 1980s,” adding that the Commission “changed it in the blink of an eye.”
Consumer groups echoed those concerns. In a statement following the meeting, Logan Burke of the Alliance for Affordable Energy (AAE) said the directive removes “guardrails meant to ensure regular people don’t shoulder unnecessary costs put onto them by monopoly utility companies and multibillion-dollar corporations.”
Lewis warned that suspending market testing could allow utilities to pursue more expensive generation projects without proving they are the lowest-cost option.
“They have no obligation to come with the least cost option,” he said. “We have now given them pretty much a blank check.”
He also raised concerns about the eight-month approval timeline, noting that the directive does not define what qualifies as a “large load.”
“We could use this process for something as small as 20 megawatts,” Lewis said, “or something as big as 17,000 megawatts,” arguing that a fixed timeline could limit meaningful review of massive projects.
The AAE pointed to ongoing impacts around the Meta data center project in north Louisiana as a cautionary example.
“Residents are already seeing negative impacts from the Meta data center development, including extended power outages, drinking water discoloration and a severe increase in traffic incidents and public safety risks,” said Alaina DiLaura with the group.
Lewis said similar frameworks for large electric loads have been adopted across the political spectrum in other states.
“33 states have either passed some type of rules, or framework or tariffs around these larger loads,” he said. “This is not even a Republican, Democratic thing. This is about consumers.”
Looking ahead to January, Lewis said he plans to push for limits on the new exemption and clearer definitions.
“We should define what a large load is for Louisiana,” he said. “The point of a regulator is to protect consumers. And to just say, ‘Well, we’ll look at that on the back end,’ I think is just a bad way to do regulatory work.”
