By: Wesley Muller and Greg LaRose | Louisiana Illuminator
This year’s elections for two replacements on the state Public Service Commission unfold as utility regulation in Louisiana approaches a crossroads. The rapid development of artificial intelligence data centers and their high demand for electricity have put a spotlight on the regulatory board.
The current commissioners attempted to strike a balance between granting utilities approval to meet the immense power needs of AI infrastructure while ensuring the cost of building new power plants isn’t eventually borne by household and small business ratepayers.
This data center dilemma awaits the election winners, as does the perennial quest for lower utility bills and the pressing need for more resilient and reliable power transmission networks.
These issues have prompted increased discussion of utility deregulation in Louisiana, where Entergy and Cleco, both stockholder-owned utility corporations, provide power to the large majority of customers. The alternative would be to open the door to more utility competition, with Texas as an example of an open marketplace.
District 1
The semi-closed primary for District 1 is open only to Republican and no-party voters.
On the Democratic side, only one candidate qualified: Connie Norris, a 73-year-old grandmother from Slidell who’s been an advocate for utility customers safe drinking water. That makes her the default nominee for the general election in November, so registered Democrats and third-party voters must wait until then to choose between Norris and whoever wins the upcoming Republican primary.
District 1 contains many of the suburban parts of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, St. Charles, Livingston, St. Helena and Washington parishes. And there’s no shortage of Republican candidates to choose from. The crowded GOP ticket has five hopefuls vying to succeed term-limited Commissioner Eric Skrmetta, R-Metairie, who has been a reliable vote for utility companies.
The candidates include Wallace “Wayne” Cooper II, a competitive chef and kitchen manager at the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center; New Orleans commercial real estate agent and state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty; Metairie criminal defense attorney “Big John” Mason; Covington state Rep. Mark Wright, who owns a cryptocurrency fund; and longtime Jefferson Parish lawyer and politician John Young, who has held multiple offices, including parish president, councilman at-large and assistant district attorney.
Cooper and Mason depart from the bunch with moderate views on regulation. Both expressed a desire for some limited deregulation in the market to break up what Mason called the “utility monopoly” controlled largely by Entergy and Cleco.
“When I say deregulation, I don’t mean no regulation,” Mason said. “I just mean a little less.”
Cooper, the political newcomer, said the current Republican commissioners too often side with the big utility companies. He believes that’s a source of rising utility bills.
In addition to regulating electric utilities, the PSC regulates water, wastewater, gas, telecommunication and pipeline services. It also regulates towing, moving and other transportation companies.
“I’m all for business, but what I’m not for is doing it at the expense of the people,” Cooper said.
Mason, who previously mounted an unsuccessful bid for PSC, claims to have identified what is driving high electricity rates.
“The problem is there’s a monopoly,” Mason said. “Entergy is guaranteed a 9% rate of return. The government has its thumb on the scale … so Entergy can build anything it wants because the customer has to pay for it.”
Noting Texas has experienced high price volatility because it’s too loosely regulated, Mason said he just wants to make it easier for other power generators to connect to Louisiana’s grid. He likened the current electricity market to prior decades when a few big phone companies controlled most of the telecom network.
“The phone companies needed to be forced through legislation that said anyone can pay to use their grids,” he said.
The other three candidates aren’t sold on the idea of changing the market.
“That is something that needs to be explored further,” Hilferty said, not committing either way.
Wright and Young were more explicit in rejecting the idea.
Wright noted that Louisiana’s membership in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator exchange allows utility companies to buy and sell electricity from generators across the region. This has created a more competitive market than the one in Texas, he said.
“So this idea of the industry being completely deregulated, it’s really false,” Wright said. “We’re in a situation where people want to come here because of electricity and energy.”
He and Hilferty pointed out that Louisiana has some of the lowest electricity rates in the country.
Louisiana does have some of the lowest electricity rates, but rates and electricity bills are not one in the same. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Louisiana ranked fourth for lowest residential rates but 30th for lowest monthly power bills.
The average monthly electric bill in Louisiana, across all home sizes, was $141 that year, ranking just slightly below the nationwide average of $142 per month. It is still lower than the average in Texas, at $164 per month in 2024.
“We have a good system of regulation in Louisiana,” Young said. “What I’ve seen is that hybrid systems or deregulated systems are not in the best interest of the ratepayers.”
Wright wants to bring Entergy New Orleans, which is regulated by the New Orleans City Council, into the regulatory jurisdiction of the PSC. As a state lawmaker, he introduced legislation to that effect this year but hasn’t yet moved the bill.
“The ratepayers in New Orleans don’t get anything better out of it,” he said. “They actually have higher rates than the rest of us.”
District 5
Two established public officeholders and two political newcomers make up the field for the race in District 5, which encompasses 24 parishes in North Louisiana.
The candidates — two Democrats and two Republicans — are competing to replace Foster Campbell, who is closing out a 50-year career in Louisiana politics. The Shreveport native has been on the Public Service Commission since 2002, having previously held a seat in the state Senate since 1976.
Campbell is a political unicorn of sorts as a moderate white Democrat from North Louisiana.
On the Democratic ballot are Shreveport City Councilman and church pastor James Green and Austin Lawson, a bartender at a Bossier City casino and career hospitality worker.
The Republican candidates seeking the seat are Caddo Parish Commission member and Shreveport businessman John Atkins and University of Louisiana-Monroe student Aiden Joyner, whose family towing business in West Monroe is regulated by the Public Service Commission.
Green has held a council seat for 16 years and has the endorsement of the Louisiana Democratic Party. The most frequent issue Green said he has heard during his campaign is households that frequently have to decide between paying their utility bills or putting food on the table.
“I know that companies got to pay their bills, and they’re in it to make money,” Green said. “But sometimes in life, big companies, utility companies and all of that, they ought to give people a break.”
Lawson, the other Democrat in the race, said his regular customers at the casino bring up concerns about their rising electric bills, and those conversations often include the ongoing wave of data center projects in the region.
Amazon will build a hub of three data centers in the Shreveport-Bossier area, and Meta is constructing what will be the largest data center yet, eventually covering 4 million square feet in Richland Parish. Both companies have said they will cover the cost of additional power infrastructure.
Despite the companies’ promises, Lawson said average ratepayers remain at a disadvantage against the global technology giants when it comes to regulatory matters.
“They have a lot of money,” Lawson said of Amazon and Meta. “You need a Public Service Commission that’s going to fight for regular customers.”
To help keep utility bills affordable, Lawson proposes a Percentage of Income Payment Plan or PIPP that links payments to household income. He cites a similar program in Ohio that he considers a successful model.
The Republican candidates in District 5 are more supportive of data centers.
Atkins said he believes the majority of Louisiana citizens support the economic development potential associated with data centers as long as they do not impact other ratepayers or the environment.
Joyner acknowledged the influx of data centers is “a little bit scary as to some of the unknowns” but said their economic benefits outweigh those concerns.
“Either they need to be self-sufficient or they need to be willing to pay for the grid impact that they’re going to have,” Joyner said.