AI data center in Louisiana brings unwanted construction, rising energy bills

Lisa Hopkins bought her house in Louisiana's Richland Parish two years ago, but lately, her family only finds peace and quiet on their front porch at night, after construction stops for the day.

That's because Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, is now building its largest artificial intelligence data center in the country right across the street.

"It's always noise, all the time," Hopkins told CBS News, adding, "We honestly didn't know how big of a scale it was gonna be... Some mornings it's hard to get out of our driveway, just because of all the dump trucks."

Louisiana approved the $10 billion project in August, saying it would bring "hope" for economic growth.

But some experts say the center's power demands will raise customers' power bills statewide. The state's main utility company — Entergy — agreed to pay for a $550 million transmission line to the center, a cost that experts say will be passed on to the 1.1 million customers under Entergy Louisiana's umbrella. This, in a parish where nearly a quarter of the population lives in poverty, according to the state's utility commission.

That's not the only reason people in Louisiana could see higher utility bills — state officials who approved the plan admit the increased energy demand from the site could, in turn, increase gas prices.

"This single data center is set to span an amount of land that is about 70 football fields worth of land, and it's going to consume roughly three times the amount of electricity that the entire city of New Orleans consumes on an annual basis," Paul Arbaje, an energy analyst with the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, told CBS News.

The Hopkins family showed CBS News their power bills, which indicated the fuel costs on their bill went up by about $13 a month compared to last year.

As the nationwide construction boom in new data centers continues, other communities are already feeling the impacts. Some customers in at least 13 states are seeing higher utility bills because of new data centers, according to the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

"We're all kind of sharing the pain in that fight," Arbaje said. "It's up to state regulators, really, to step in and protect consumers and make sure that tech companies and utility companies are paying their fair share for this development."

Meta's head of community development in North America, Katie Comer, said they're working with Entergy to reduce customer impacts, telling CBS News that Meta has "invested a million dollars into their bill pay assistance program to support low-income families."

Asked about concerns from residents that Meta is imposing on the neighborhood, Comer said, "We are actively on the ground every day. We want to listen and learn and meet the community where they're at."

Comer added Meta is also investing $200 million into local infrastructure projects and partnering with local school programs to help the community's long-term development.

"This community as a whole is incredibly special," Comer said. "We've been very proud of the work that we've been able to do together. I am extremely excited about the work that we will do in the future together."

Entergy has said that Meta coming to Louisiana will actually mean lower customer power bills, adding in a statement that resilience upgrades could reduce electricity bills by 10%.

Resident Donna Collins, who has lived in the region her entire life, said she hopes it's true, "but I'm going to have to see it to believe it."

Collins told CBS News that she felt outreach by the state and Meta for local input was sorely lacking.

"I definitely don't feel like I had a say, and I don't know many people that do," she said.

Hopkins said she never received any notices about public hearings in the mail.

"It's not fair. It's not something that we asked to be put here," Hopkins said.