The Public Service Commission is meeting at this hour, and it may decide whether to approve a power plant that Entergy is looking to build in northeast Louisiana that would power a massive Meta data center. The Alliance for Affordable Energy is asking the commission to hold off on voting on it until October. Executive Director Logan Burke says the project will benefit one company, while everyone else gets to pay for it.
Cut 4 (13) “…in North Louisiana.”
But Commissioner Mike Francis says most stakeholders appear to be on board with the plan, so there’s no sense in delaying the inevitable. Francis says Louisianans already benefit from some of the lowest energy costs in the country.
Crews are making good progress on the Backbone Fire in the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness Area in Natchitoches Parish. Jim Caldwell with the U.S. Forest Service says as of yesterday evening, the 24-hundred-acre fire was just under 60-percent contained.
Caldwell says there are no homes or structures threatened, and no one has been forced to evacuate.
Just like across the rest of the country, smoking continues to be on the decline in Louisiana. In 2023, less than 16-percent of Louisiana adults surveyed admitted that they smoke. Chrishelle Stipe with the Louisiana Public Health Institute says, however, that other tobacco use is on the rise – especially among younger people.