Louisiana regulators fast-track second batch of gas plants for Meta data center
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Louisiana regulators approved three gas plants for Meta's Hyperion data center in 2025 and fast-tracked seven more in April 2026. As You Sow and partners reported that Meta's location-based Scope 2 emissions rose about 150 percent from 2019 to 2024.
- Meta — Gas plants approved to supply its Hyperion data center WWNO
- Louisiana ratepayers — WWNO's headline reports advocates citing rising costs and a lack of transparency WWNO
- Air and climate — As You Sow and partners say Meta's location-based Scope 2 emissions rose about 150 percent from 2019 to 2024 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
What happened
WWNO reported that Louisiana regulators approved three gas plants, totaling 2.26 GW, for Meta in 2025.
WWNO reported that in April 2026 the Louisiana PSC fast-tracked seven more plants, about 5.2 GW, by a 4 to 1 vote.
As You Sow and partners said in a May 2026 SEC filing that Meta's location-based Scope 2 emissions rose about 150 percent between 2019 and 2024, and that Hyperion would involve 5 GW and seven new gas plants.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Meta describes the Hyperion supply as '100 percent clean'.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Entergy's gas plants may enter the utility's rate base.
- None on record The sources reviewed do not state how the cost of the gas plants is shared between Meta and Louisiana ratepayers.
- None on record The 150 percent Scope 2 rise is a figure from an advocacy group, not from Meta's own reporting.
- None on record The sources do not state the actual gas output or emissions of the Hyperion plants.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Notice of Exempt Solicitation – Meta PlatformsU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-05
Connected cases
- Big Tech data-centre emissions accounting (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta) United States · 2007–2026
- Meta (Company) — here: Operator of the Hyperion data center; there: Company; Scope 2 and gas-plant supply in Louisiana
- Meta kept its news block in Canada during a 2023 wildfire evacuation Canada · 2023
- Meta (Company) — here: Operator of the Hyperion data center; there: operator of the platform with the news block
- Northern Kenya Grasslands Carbon Project and the Isiolo court ruling Kenya · 2012–2026
- Meta (Company) — here: Operator of the Hyperion data center; there: Credit buyer