State Rep. Mike Echols speaks to the media after qualifying as a candidate for Congress in Louisiana's 5th congressional district. (Photo by Julie O'Donoghue/LAI)
As data centers pop up across the country, debate around what role elected officials have, if any, on monitoring and restricting their resource use and development has become part of the political conversation.
In Louisiana, Democrats running for Congress in the 5th and 6th U.S. House districts as well as the U.S. Senate said they were concerned about water and electricity data centers need.
Republican candidates were more inclined to trust the data center industry’s promises not to overuse public resources or pass along operational costs to the public.
State Sens. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, who is in the 5th District field, and Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, a 6th District candidate, could not be reached for this report through multiple phone calls and text messages. State Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, also on the 6th District ballot, declined to answer questions.
Environmental and consumer rights advocates as well as residents living near data center projects have repeatedly voiced concern over the amount of water and electricity the facilities, such as Amazon’s facility in Shreveport and Meta’s expansive campus in Richland Parish, will require.
Pat Forbes, a Democrat running in the 6th District, said his “gut feeling” is that legislation will be required to protect ratepayers. The public will “need to rely on something more than a handshake” for ratepayer protection, he said. Other Democratic candidates generally agreed.
“I know that there needs to be some regulation,” said state Rep. Pat Moore, D-Monroe, who is in the 5th District race.
Republican candidates were generally less supportive of government regulation. State Rep. Gabe Firment of Pollock, state Board of Regents chair Misti Cordell of Monroe, both Republicans seeking the 5th District seat, said they feel assured by data center developers’ claims that water use would be minimal and electricity costs would not affect average households enough to warrant extensive regulation.
Edmonds made similar comments at a debate for Republicans in the 6th District race Tuesday in Denham Springs.
“(T)here are those that say that it’s going to cost the taxpayer more money on their energy costs. I don’t believe that’s true,”Edmonds said. Adding that investment from companies such as Meta would contribute to power access with grid strengthening projects.
Largely breaking from other Republican candidates, state Rep. Michael Echols, a 5th District candidate from Monroe. He said the government should monitor data center water and power use to prevent consumers from being affected.
“It is absolutely a concern, and it’s something that through responsible policy we can monitor and make sure that they’re good stewards of our natural resources,” Echols said.
Meta and Entergy, which is providing power to its Richland Parish data campus, have signed ratepayer protection pledges promising not to hand down electricity costs to other consumers. Critics have pointed out that these pledges aren’t legally binding.
When asked whether ratepayer protection pledges were strong enough to guarantee responsible resource use and protection against rising utility costs, all candidates said it was a good first step.
“The data center should pay its own bills. Bottom line. Period,” said Jamie Davis, an Tensas Parish farmer and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
All but Cordell said they would go a step further, generally favoring some form of legislation requiring data centers to cover the cost of their electric use.
“I’m not for extra regulations that would be burdensome on any economic development that would come into our area,” Cordell said.
Congresswoman Julia Lettow of Baton Rouge, the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race, cited her vote in favor of the Ratepayer Protection Act as proof of her support for holding data centers responsible for their promises. The federal legislation would have encouraged states to consider large data centers covering all of the costs linked to the power generation and transmission they need.
“If a data center creates the need for major new infrastructure, families and small businesses should not be left footing the bill,” she said in a written statement to the Illuminator.
The Ratepayer Protection Act gained approval in the U.S. House but failed in the Senate by just three votes.
Secrecy surrounding big economic development deals in Louisiana, including that of data centers, has become an increasingly charged topic. The use of NDAs by public officials has candidates sharing with their voters whether there is enough transparency in government around the development of major industrial projects like data centers.
Candidates largely agreed that more work could be done in government to increase transparency around data center development. Some were more specific than others on exactly how to do so.
Chauna Banks, a former East Baton Rouge Metro Council member running as a Democrat in the 6th District, said there needs to be “a limit upfront on how many data centers should be in each state.” She added that she is leery of data centers because she has lived in communities that have often been asked to give up things in the name of progress with no reciprocity.
NDA secrecy for major projects hovers over Louisiana’s congressional elections
Banks also said data centers should only be allowed in areas zoned for heavy industrial uses, and that elected officials should “never, ever sign NDAs” unless it is an issue of national security or maybe a trade agreement.
Davis, Echols and Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia, a Democrat in the 6th District race, share similar views on NDAs.
“I recognize that some business information is legitimately confidential. But that cannot become a blanket justification for withholding the assumptions behind demands on public infrastructure or promises used to justify incentives,” Garcia said in a written statement.
Firment countered, saying while officials “need to err on the side of transparency,” they could be useful in the name of economic development and national security.
“There needs to be some balance when it comes to disclosing proprietary information and trade secrets that would potentially put companies at a competitive disadvantage,” Firment said.
