(The Center Square) — Three Louisiana nonprofit organizations sued the state’s Public Service Commission on Monday, alleging regulators violated the Louisiana Constitution when they adopted a rule allowing electric utilities to bypass certain regulatory requirements to accelerate construction of power infrastructure for massive data centers.

The lawsuit challenges the commission’s “Lightning Initative,” a fast-track approval process backed by Governor Jeff Landry and adopted in December 2025 that has since been invoked by Entergy Louisiana and Cleco Power in proceedings involving multibillion-dollar data center developments.

The plaintiffs — Louisiana Landowners Coalition, Louisiana Citizen Advocacy Group and Save My Louisiana Inc. — contend the commission failed to provide adequate public notice before changing its procedures, denying residents an opportunity to weigh in on decisions that could ultimately affect electricity rates, private property and the state’s power grid.

“Democracy only works when the government plays by the rules,” said William Most, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. “The Public Service Commission does not get a free pass for violating the Constitution.”

The legal challenge comes little more than a month before commissioners are scheduled to consider Entergy’s application for additional electricity generation and transmission infrastructure serving Meta’s data center in Richland parish. If the Commission approves, Entergy would have the greenlight to build over $14 billion worth of electricity infrastructure.

The directive was approved on a 4-1 vote in December of 2025, at the request of Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan, a Republican from Lafayette. Commissioner Davante Lewis cast the lone dissenting vote.

Under the Lightning Initiative, qualifying utilities can bypass the commission’s usual competitive bidding requirements for new power plants, which are designed to determine whether less expensive alternatives are available.

The alternative process requires utilities to demonstrate that they have signed an electricity service agreement lasting at least 15 years, that the proposed customer needs power within five years and that Louisiana Economic Development supports the project. The agreement must also provide fixed revenue sufficient to cover at least half the fixed revenue requirements associated with the new capacity.

The directive calls for the commission to consider applications under the Lightning Initiative within eight months. The lawsuit questions whether commissioners followed the law when adopting those changes in the first place.

Entergy maintains that its agreements will save ratepayers over $2 billion by requiring Meta to cover incremental costs associated with powering the data center.

It was first reported by The Center Square that Entergy CEO Phillip May accidentally revealed the data centers expected power usage of 4500 megawatts, which is roughly four times the power demand of the entire city of New Orleans. Meta needs the proposed power infrastructure to meet that demand.

The Lightning Initiative is also being used in Cleco Power’s application to support Applied Digital’s proposed $3.6 billion Delta Forge 1 data center campus in Rapides Parish. That proceeding, Docket U-38035, remains pending, with commission consideration scheduled no later than March 2027.

For landowners along proposed transmission corridors, the controversy extends beyond electricity rates.

Dustin McAnn, a LaSalle Parish cattle farmer and teacher involved with the Louisiana Landowners Coalition, said his property could be subject to expropriation for transmission infrastructure serving Meta’s development.

“Our Coalition members are facing forced expropriation, permanent loss of value, and damage to their family farms, private homesteads, and wildlife habitats under a process cooked up behind closed doors,” McAnn said. “The Public Service Commission owes Louisiana landowners transparency and constitutional fairness, not secret shortcuts that benefit a multi-billion dollar utility at the expense of everyday Louisianians.”

Coussan has defended the directive as necessary to attract major employers while maintaining regulatory oversight. Following its adoption last December, he said the policy would accelerate economic development without abandoning consumer protections.

“Speed does not replace scrutiny; it simply removes unnecessary delay,” Coussan said at the time.