Meta won’t have to divulge key details about a planned data center in Louisiana after the state’s utility commission voted 3-1 on Wednesday to reverse an administrative judge’s ruling that would have forced the social media giant to release more information about the project.
All three Republicans on the Public Service Commission agreed to grant Meta’s request to overturn a July 10 decision that would have required the technology company to turn over details such as the data center’s expected employment or its planned energy usage. The $50 billion data center in northeast Louisiana is at the heart of utility Entergy Louisiana’s request to build seven new gas plants to power the complex.
The lone Democrat at the meeting dissented. Commissioner Davante Lewis agreed with the July 10 order, which concluded that the information sought from Meta was central to the commission’s decision whether to approve the gas plants and other grid infrastructure for the data center project, dubbed Hyperion.
The commission’s other Democrat, Foster Campbell, did not attend the meeting.
