(By Alton Wallace/The Center Square) – Shreveport City Council member James Green (D) faces Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins in the Nov. 3 election to replace Foster Campbell in the Louisiana Public Service Commission’s 5th District, an area stretching across 24 parishes from the Mississippi line to the Texas border.

Atkins, 62, a Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner for 11 years will face Green, 71, a Democrat who has served on the Shreveport City Council for a total of 16 years since he was first elected in 1994.

In 2011, Mayor Cedric Glover appointed Atkins to a four-year term as the public’s representative on the Shreveport Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission’s 5^th District is home to some of the largest data centers now under development in the United States and its boundaries include a part of the Haynesville shale basin, one of the world’s most prolific gas-producing regions.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is building its $50 billion Hyperion data center facility in Richland Parish near Delhi, and Amazon expects to invest $16 billion in three Artificial Intelligence campuses in and around Shreveport, with both of the tech giants planning to meet baseline energy needs by drawing electricity from the regional grid. Meta’s facility alone is projected to pull 4.5 gigawatts, enough to power nearly four times the peak electricity demand of the city of New Orleans on the hottest summer day.

Electricity prices rose by 33% across Louisiana since 2019 versus 39% nationally and increased an average 5.3% statewide in the last year compared to 6.5% in the lower 48 states, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.

The two candidates seek to replace Campbell, a Democrat, who is retiring after nearly a half-century in elected office, including 24 years on the Public Service Commission.

Atkins, formerly a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company with a focus on multinational energy companies, now manages investments at Atco in oil & gas, timberland, agriculture and other alternative assets, according to his campaign web page.

“You have to remember that utilities are incentivized to spend money because they receive a return on equity for every dollar that they invest in our grid,” Atkins told KTAL-TV in Shreveport in an interview today on rising power bills. “I will make sound decisions on utility rates based on engineering and economics, not politics, to keep service low-cost and reliable.”

Atkins said data center owners should pay for the infrastructure – power plants, transmission lines, and substations – built to serve the facilities rather than passing these costs on to other ratepayers.

Green, in the same KTAL-TV news segment, said data centers should build their own power grids.

The long-time Shreveport pastor and political figure is focused on lowering consumer utility rates, increasing corporate billing transparency, and enforcing strict regulatory oversight on power companies, according to his campaign website. “The people of Louisiana deserve leadership that asks tough questions, demands accountability, and keeps ratepayers at the center of every decision,” Green said on his campaign web site.

In the TV interview Tuesday, Green said many people in District 5 are struggling to pay power bills that have gone higher and higher in recent years. “They are calling me, and as I go on the campaign trail, they’re talking about it – so that’s one of the first things that I would like to do,” said Green.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission is a five-member body that develops state energy policies, regulates the prices utilities can charge ratepayers, and oversees electric, water, wastewater, natural gas, and telecommunications services across the state.