Three Louisiana nonprofit organizations have sued the state Public Service Commission, alleging regulators violated the Louisiana Constitution when they adopted the “Lightning Initiative,” a fast-track approval process designed to accelerate construction of electricity infrastructure for large data centers, The Center Square reports.
Adopted in December 2025 on a 4-1 vote, with support from Gov. Jeff Landry, the policy allows qualifying utilities to bypass traditional competitive bidding requirements for new power plants, which are intended to identify less expensive alternatives.
The lawsuit, filed by the Louisiana Landowners Coalition, Louisiana Citizen Advocacy Group and Save My Louisiana Inc., argues the commission failed to provide adequate public notice before changing its procedures, limiting residents’ opportunities to weigh in on decisions affecting electricity rates, private property and the power grid. The initiative requires utilities to demonstrate they have a power service agreement lasting at least 15 years, that customers need electricity within five years and that LED supports the project.
Agreements must also guarantee fixed revenue covering at least half of the fixed revenue requirements associated with new capacity. The commission is directed to consider qualifying applications within eight months.
The legal challenge comes ahead of a commission decision on Entergy Louisiana’s proposal to build more than $14 billion in generation and transmission infrastructure to serve Meta’s planned Richland Parish data center, which could require 4,500 megawatts of electricity, roughly four times the demand of New Orleans. Entergy says its agreements will save ratepayers more than $2 billion by requiring Meta to cover incremental costs.
The policy is also being used for Cleco Power’s proposed infrastructure supporting Applied Digital’s $3.6 billion Delta Forge 1 data center in Rapides Parish, with commission consideration scheduled no later than March 2027.
