Why developers come here
Louisiana had the lowest industrial electricity price of any Southern state in 2024 at 5.61 cents per kWh (EIA), and it sits on top of the gas supply that now powers most new data center generation. Year-to-date through June 2026 the industrial average had risen to 6.75 cents per kWh, still well under the national 8.89. Large rural tracts in the Delta parishes of the northeast, the pine country around Alexandria, and the river parishes above Baton Rouge are available at farm prices.
The state added a data center rebate in 2024 that covers both state and local sales tax for 20 years, and the Public Service Commission has shown it will approve dedicated gas plants for a single customer on a compressed schedule. Meta chose Richland Parish for Hyperion, its largest campus, in December 2024; Hut 8 and Applied Digital followed within eighteen months.
Incentives
- State and local sales and use tax rebate, Act 730 of 2024 (R.S. 47:305.73). A data center certified by Louisiana Economic Development (LED) that attests to at least 50 new direct permanent jobs and at least $200 million of new capital investment made between July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2029 receives a rebate of state and local sales and use tax on data center equipment, software, and construction, repair, and expansion spending. The initial term is 20 years with a possible 10-year renewal. There is no minimum wage requirement for the 50 jobs. Because it is a rebate rather than an exemption, tax is paid and then returned.
- Property tax. Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) offers up to 80 percent ad valorem relief with local approval. In practice the large campuses have negotiated payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) deals with parish industrial boards; West Feliciana’s PILOT with Hut 8 is reported at about $90 million a year for 15 years, roughly doubling the parish budget.
- 2025 and 2026 changes. No moratorium or repeal has passed. The 2026 session produced parish-specific measures such as HB 466, which would let West Feliciana’s industrial board rebate property taxes to residents from data center revenue. Advocates including Invest in Louisiana have asked the state to publish the revenue cost of Act 730; as of mid-2026 no official estimate had been released.
Power
Most of Louisiana is in MISO South, served by Entergy Louisiana (Meta Hyperion, Hut 8 River Bend) and Cleco Power (Applied Digital at Boyce). The northwest corner around Shreveport is SWEPCO territory in SPP.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) regulates both utilities and has become the state’s central data center decision-maker. On August 20, 2025 it voted 4 to 1 to approve Entergy Louisiana’s three combined-cycle gas plants (about 2.26 GW, roughly $3.2 billion, plus a $550 million transmission line) built specifically for Meta, backed by a 15-year supply contract. On December 17, 2025 the LPSC adopted an expedited certification process, often called the “Lightning” rule, for generation serving large new loads: the customer must sign a supply contract of at least 10 years and cover at least 50 percent of the utility’s capacity investment over the contract term, and the approval timeline compresses to about seven months. On April 15, 2026 the commission put Entergy’s application for seven more gas plants for Hyperion, which would bring the total to about 7.5 GW, on a fast track with a decision expected in December 2026. Cleco has separately proposed a 756 MW gas plant for Applied Digital.
Critics, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and Invest in Louisiana, argue that plants with 30-to-40-year lives backed by 10-to-15-year contracts leave other ratepayers exposed. Supporters point to the minimum-bill provisions and the fact that new industrial revenue is spread across the rate base. Water has not been the lead issue so far; the projects sit in high-rainfall areas with surface water access.
Where the projects are
Three nodes: Richland Parish in the northeast Delta (Meta Hyperion at Holly Ridge, about 2 GW); West Feliciana Parish north of Baton Rouge (Hut 8 River Bend, up to 1 GW utility capacity, Fluidstack as anchor tenant); and Rapides Parish in central Louisiana along I-49 (Applied Digital’s campus at Boyce, 300 MW initial). Caddo Parish around Shreveport and Livingston Parish east of Baton Rouge have rezonings and speculation but no confirmed tenant.
Local politics
The host parishes have welcomed the projects, largely because a single campus can double a rural parish’s revenue. Richland and West Feliciana parish governments negotiated PILOTs and are debating how to distribute the windfall. Governor Landry has treated each announcement as a signature win.
Pushback runs through the electricity bill and through secrecy. In Caddo Parish, a commissioner’s proposal for a two-year moratorium on data center tax incentives was blocked in August 2026 by the parish attorney, who said a moratorium cannot be enacted by resolution and that regulating a business type requires a master plan and zoning ordinance the parish lacks. In Livingston Parish, a 691-acre rezoning from residential to heavy industrial in November 2025, preceded by a federal wetlands review, fueled claims that officials had signed non-disclosure agreements; Ascension Parish began drafting data center rules before any project was proposed. Statewide, the objection is that ratepayers will carry half or more of new gas plant costs after the contracts end.
What a landowner should know
Developers here want 1,000 to 3,000 acres near an Entergy or Cleco 230 kV or 500 kV corridor, with gas pipeline access and rail or barge for equipment. Meta’s Richland site and Hut 8’s West Feliciana site were both assembled from farm and timber tracts through options, usually with confidentiality clauses.
Louisiana’s parish zoning is uneven; many rural parishes have no zoning at all, which means no public hearing until a utility certification or PILOT reaches a public body. Ask whether the developer intends to seek Act 730 certification and an ITEP or PILOT, since those are the points where conditions can be attached. The state contact is Louisiana Economic Development, which certifies Act 730 projects; generation and rate matters go before the Louisiana Public Service Commission.