Small town Louisiana residents share their concerns about Meta mega project: “It feels like they can come take advantage of us”
Construction is underway on Meta’s largest data center in the world but there are concerns among the community where the $10bn project is located.
Meta and Louisiana Economic Development (LED) announced in December 2024 that the massive technology company would build a $10 billion data center in Richland Parish. Once completed the facility will stretch over a mile from on extreme to another, occupying 4 million square feet on 2,250 acres, roughly the size of Manhattan.
It will be Meta’s largest data center in the world. But residents in the surrounding area where it will be located have raised concerns on how, or even if, it will benefit their local communities.
Meta’s $10bn data center: boon or boondoggle for poor rural Louisiana
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry touted the project last year saying that “Meta’s investment establishes the region as an anchor in Louisiana’s rapidly expanding tech sector.” He also said that it will provide “opportunities for Louisiana workers to fill high-paying jobs of the future.”
Construction on the facility will go through 2030 and is expected to employ 5,000 construction workers at its peak phase. Meta said that it will make “a concerted effort to source labor and materials locally.”
Once operational, the data center will result in at least 500 more direct new jobs, more than 1,000 indirect jobs according to a press release. It is hoped that the project will “spark new economic activity and investments throughout northeast Louisiana.”
Meta has also pledged to help local communities by partnering with local schools and organizations to advance STEAM education and digital skills that can be used to compete in the digital workforce.
Resident express concerns about who will really benefit
Currently in Richland Parish, located in the northeast corner of Louisiana, 90% of household incomes come from work in agriculture says More Perfect Union. The progressive non-profit news media organization interviewed people from the area that are concerned about whether Meta’s mega project will truly benefit them.
“Why are the data centers coming to the small rural towns?” asked one woman rhetorically. “They’re coming here to benefit themselves. They’re not coming here with intentions of benefiting the community.”
“In a sense it feels like, well, yeah, they can come take advantage of us, poor dumb rural folks, you know,” concurred a young man.
“We’re giving our most valuable resource, which is farmland,” another man said. “I want to know, what is Meta doing to give back to the community?”
“There’s a fear like, you know, who’s going to get what they need – it’s gonna be the people with the most money and the most power,” he added.
“Our farmers around here really rely on the water system for irrigating their crops and stuff like that. If they deplete the water system, you know that’s going to be a big problem,” explained another man.
Heard on the Street: Meta’s off-balance-sheet accounting treatment for its $27 billion data center in Louisiana looks too good to be true. It probably is. | My latest @WSJ @WSJheard $META $OWL https://t.co/uINnz0Tu6A
— Jonathan Weil (@JonathanWeil) November 24, 2025
Electricity concerns
Water isn’t the only resource people are concerned about. As with any gigantic data center, where all the energy will come from that is needed to power its towering rows of computers is a major issue.
Meta’s data center is expected to use up to three times what New Orleans uses in a year. Additional infrastructure needs and increased demand on the grid could could cause locals’ energy bills to shoot up.
“We’re a poor area. It’s a huge amount of people that have trouble paying their electric bill currently,” a woman told More Perfect Union. “There are people who don’t own vehicles, they don’t have health care. I just think about the people that I know, that they won’t be able to keep their lights on.”
The press release for the project says that “Meta has committed to contribute up to $1 million a year to Entergy’s ‘The Power to Care’ low-income ratepayer support program.” Entergy Louisiana has said that it will be making a matching contribution.
Entergy also says that to meet growing demands on the grid, it will “add clean, efficient power plants to its system.” Meta said that it is working with Entergy to bring a minimum of 1,500 MW of new renewable energy to the grid and has pledged to match the amount of electricity its data center uses with 100% clean and renewable energy via its Geaux Zero program.
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