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Entergy pauses Cottonwood proceedings as cost, data center questions mount 11%
By Sam Karlin66%
8/4/2026, 1:50:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Self-Serving Bias, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 16.6% saturation with 149 hits. Analysis detected 1,233 faulty-reasoning hits from 898 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 21.5% and a BS Rank of 11% (24,548 of 27,320 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 89.90% of the article peer group.
Facing questions from investors and regulators, Entergy Louisiana has indefinitely postponed proceedings in its controversial plan to buy a Texas power plant for $1.8 billion, saying it is working on a plan to lessen the costs to residents.
Entergy on Monday asked a judge to suspend the procedural schedule in the case, postponing a hearing that was scheduled for September.
Entergy told the judge it needs additional time because of “complex and fact intensive issues in the case,” in which Entergy is asking for permission to buy the Cottonwood power plant from a private equity firm.
Entergy spokesperson Brandon Scardigli said in a statement that the company needs additional time to address “issues raised” by the Public Service Commission staff.
The PSC regulates Entergy.
He also said Entergy is working with the PSC to “identify ways to lessen the initial bill impacts of the proposed Cottonwood acquisition.”
It was not immediately clear what a reworked version of the deal would look like.
But the move reflects mounting opposition to the acquisition, which has put Entergy at the center of a debate over whether data centers will raise costs for residents.
A consultant hired by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, Entergy’s regulator, testified earlier this summer that the proposed acquisition would effectively mean residents would pay for energy that’s largely only needed because of Meta’s massive north Louisiana data center.
After the Times-Picayune | The Advocate reported about the testimony, Gov.
Jeff Landry issued an executive order demanding that data center developers pay for their own energy costs.
But the company has faced pushback from the PSC, where at least two members have suggested they will oppose the deal.
Commissioners Eric Skrmetta and Mike Francis, both Republicans, indicated they would vote against the proposed deal, which would cost the average residential customer about $9 a month more on their electric bill.
Francis said Tuesday that his stance hasn’t changed and that he expects Entergy to present a reworked version of the deal.
“They’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and present a different case, would be my guess,” Francis said.
Commissioner Davante Lewis, who has also raised questions about the proposal, said investors asked him about Cottonwood at a recent gathering of regulators in Minneapolis.
He suggested Entergy is getting “serious pushback” from investors, who are questioning whether the company will ever win approval.
“I find it hard pressed that this application will be approved without fundamental changes to it,” Lewis said, adding that he hasn’t taken an official position on the deal.
Scardigli, of Entergy, said the preceding will continue on a “revised timeline.”
“During this period, Entergy Louisiana is also working with LPSC Staff and other parties to identify ways to lessen the initial bill impacts of the proposed Cottonwood acquisition,” he said in a statement.
“Because it is an existing facility option and avoids new construction costs, Cottonwood offers an opportunity to add existing, dispatchable generation quickly that supports the power needs of ALL of our Louisiana customers, at a fraction of the cost for a new build.”
Entergy’s planned acquisition is being litigated before an administrative law judge.
Judges typically make a recommendation to either approve or reject such applications, and the PSC has the final say.
Entergy Corp.
CEO Drew Marsh told investors on a recent earnings call that while Cottonwood isn’t the “shiniest new plant out there,” buying it would be cost-effective for customers in the long run.
He also said the company is working to “mitigate the impact” on ratepayers.
“The biggest issue is a timing question, because the full plant is what's available at the beginning of next year, and it's for sale now,” Marsh said.
“It's not for sale at the ideal time when all these other customers are arriving, that aren't data centers.
And so we're working through that and figuring out ways that we can manage the risks, and we feel confident we'll come up with something.”
The proposed acquisition raised questions about whether Meta was following a White House pledge it signed promising to pay for its own power when building data centers.
Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan said at the time that the analysis by the PSC consultant, Lane Sisung, was “inaccurate speculation.”
“Meta pays its own way, both for the power and new infrastructure we use,” he said in June.
“Our agreement with Entergy is built to guarantee we pay those costs, not Louisianans.”
Sisung’s analysis raised a host of problems with the plan.
Cottonwood is 22 years old, has reliability issues that would require hundreds of millions in spending by Entergy to fix and was acquired by a private equity firm a few years ago for far less than Entergy is planning to buy it for.
And, he wrote, the need for power exists “principally by the Meta-related ramp period rather than by general system load growth.”
The data center, one of the largest in the world, has become a flashpoint for a national debate over the massive infrastructure buildout to power artificial intelligence products.
Landry’s administration has signed nondisclosure agreements with Meta and other data center developers as part of a bid to land the facilities.
His administration also pushed through a tax break for data centers that could give billions in benefits to tech giants like Meta and Amazon.
Speakers
10speakers71%attributed speech264writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageLouisiana Public Service Commission
39 attributed words6.2% of attributed speech80% writer coverage
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