It took the U.S. six days to get water to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in the Superdome in 2005. Twenty years later America’s found a whole new way to screw the Cajuns over, with a lot of help from Meta.
Here’s the deal: Meta recently announced that it is building a 4 million-square-foot AI data center in the state of Louisiana — its biggest ever, with energy needs to match.
AI processing is incredibly power-hungry, and Meta’s AI factory needs 2 GW of electricity, enough to power about one and a half million households. This means building a new natural gas power station nearby at a cost of $5 billion.
Woof! That’s a big bill for Meta, isn’t it?
Actually, no. Because Meta isn’t paying anything for its data center power station. Entergy, the local utility, is building that.
Bit pricey for Entergy, right?
Well, no, because Entergy isn’t paying either. Instead, they’re planning to hand the good people of Louisiana the enormous bill by tagging on the cost of the new fossil fuel power station to their customers’ utility bills.
So, here we have a trillion-dollar company, Meta, sticking the ratepayers of the second poorest state in America with the bill for its shiny new power station, which, by the way, they won’t get to use.
Meta can get away with this because, unlike, say, China, the U.S. government failed to anticipate the power requirements of the AI revolution and hasn’t updated either the electrical grid or the regulations governing it — both of which include elements that are literally 100 years old. And in this instance, Meta, which usually fights regulation tooth and nail, is absolutely delighted to take full advantage of the rule book.
Ironically, Meta’s tagline is “Giving people the power to build community." In this case, it’s doing the exact opposite.
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