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T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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W e d n e s d ay, J u ly 16, 2025
Entergy plans 3 plants to power Meta facility
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Louisiana senators back cuts to NPR, PBS Vote on funds at center of ‘rescission’ package
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
Work continues on the site of Meta’s $10 billion AI data center in Holly Ridge on Thursday.
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Hearing to weigh proposal for $10B AI data center BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer
Plans to power Meta’s $10 billion AI data center in northeast Louisiana reached a key stage on Tuesday with the opening of a hearing aimed at weighing Entergy’s proposal to build three new electricity plants in connection with the facility. The hearing before an administrative judge in Baton Rouge began a day after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg weighed in on what would be the company’s largest data center yet, talking of plans to scale it up even further in the future, potentially giving it a footprint rivaling the size of Manhattan. The project has been lauded by state officials as a major economic development win for an impoverished area of Louisiana. Consumer and environmental groups have however raised deep concerns over the facility’s massive energy needs and whether some of the costs of powering it would eventually fall to average ratepayers.
While this week’s hearing may re- the new data center load, while it sult in recommendations from Judge reaps the return-on-equity benefits to Melanie Verzwyvelt, the state’s Public be gained from the unprecedented bilService Commission can eventually lions of new infrastructure spending,” vote as it chooses, and the Louisiana Energy it is widely expected to Users Group, a coali20 Monroe 20 approve the plans. Ention of companies intergy broke ground on cluding Exxon Mobil a substation last month Holly Ridge: 61 and Dow Chemical, that did not require wrote in their brief beSite of 165 regulatory approval. fore the hearing. Meta AI data center Environmental nonLouisiana Energy 49 Alexandria Users Group has been profits and a coaliLA. MISS. at odds with Entergy tion of petrochemical in the past over its companies questioned Miss. River members’ attempts to Entergy’s proposal to Baton buy their own power build the gas-powered 49 Rouge without going through plants Tuesday. The un10 the utility. Consumer likely coalition argues Staff map advocacy and envithat the utility and tech giant will reap the ronmental groups are benefits, while residents and large in- meanwhile raising concerns over the dustrial customers could take on risks. planned fossil fuel-powered plants and “Entergy should not be allowed to whether the new demand will further use its monopoly structure to unrea- strain the grid. sonably impose financial risks on its ä See POWER, page 6A existing captive ratepayers to serve
Every snake has its day
who as a candidate promised Rate rose last to immediately lower costs, but has engaged in a whipmonth to its highest instead saw frenzy of tariffs that have level since February jolted businesses and consum-
BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and JOSH BOAK AP writers
BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 94 LOW 75 PAGE 8B
ä See CUTS, page 6A
Tariff-driven inflation beginning to emerge
Local experts advise protecting them instead of killing them
Serpents get a bad rap. Their lore, both mythological and pop cultural, can engender fear and hatred of snakes. Unfairly, experts say, humans go after the harmless, slithery rat exterminator in the garden — or even organize communitywide snake rodeos, taking up shotguns and firing at as many of the (mostly nonvenomous) reptiles as they can. On Wednesday, which is World Snake Day, Louisiana snake ex-
WASHINGTON — Both Louisiana senators support the elimination of federal funds for public broadcasting, which is at the center of a controversial budget bill the U.S. Senate is scheduled to begin considering Tuesday night. The “rescission” package would cut $9.4 billion in spending targeted by the Department of Governmental Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The legislation would ax already approved federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, slash spending on the U.S. Agency for International Development and Cassidy cut a program addressing HIV and AIDS that was begun when George W. Bush was president. However, Politico reported Tuesday afternoon that senators may restore funding for the HIV/AIDS program. The legislation needs Kennedy to be approved by Friday. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, pointed to NPR ä Cassidy headlines like “Animals says deserve gender pronouns, measles too.” outbreak “They only get 1% of their funding from the fed- has peaked. eral government. If they PAGE 9A want to keep publishing this nonsense, it shouldn’t be on the taxpayer’s dime,” Cassidy said. Cassidy was referring to an April 2021 opinion piece by Scott Simon, of NPR Weekend Edition, about an effort by scientist Jane Goodall, famed for her study about the lives of chimpanzees. Goodall and more than 80 animal rights activists asked the editors of The Associated Press Stylebook, which is used by journalists, to identify animals with he/she pronouns if their sex is known and he/his/they pronouns if their sex is unknown, rather than by “it.” U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy, R-Madisonville, filed a bill in February to abolish federal funding for public broadcasting.
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
King Arthur, a young California king snake, wraps around the hand of Jennifer Shields, education curator at the Baton Rouge Zoo, on Monday. perts — herpetologists — are urging residents to learn more about their slithery neighbors and the key role they play in the local ecosystem. “I think most kids are fascinated by amphibians and reptiles, and that our culture, maybe our mothers and fathers, because they don’t
want us to get injured, breeds this fear of snakes into us,” said Chris Austin, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the LSU Museum of Natural Science and biological sciences professor. “It’s really unfortunate in a lot of ways.”
ä See SNAKE, page 8A
WASHINGTON — Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs pushed up the cost of everything from groceries and clothes to furniture and appliances. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month. Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump,
Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
ers. Trump insists that the U.S. effectively has no inflation as he has attempted to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell into cutting short-term interest rates. Yet the new inflation numbers make it more likely that the central bank will leave rates where they are. Powell has said that he wants to gauge the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs before reducing borrowing costs. Excluding volatile food and energy, core inflation increased 2.9% in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8% in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2% from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices
ä See INFLATION, page 10A
101ST yEAR, NO. 16