On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) said that “when I went into Congress in 2011, we were talking about grid resiliency and how the United States’ electrical grid was in shambles, and today, it still is.” And Louisiana’s data center agreement “gives us an opportunity to ensure that our grid is stronger and more resilient and to be able to do it without bearing that cost onto the ratepayers.”
Co-host Lawrence Jones asked, “I want to talk about data centers, because you’re not backing down, it’s become a hot topic, people are upset about the data centers coming to states, even my home state of Texas, there’s been some pushback on it. You’re doubling down. Why, and why do you feel like it’s a benefit to your state and its people?”
Landry answered, “Well, because, first of all, when I went into Congress in 2011, we were talking about grid resiliency and how the United States’ electrical grid was in shambles, and today, it still is. With this opportunity in Louisiana, these data centers are actually, the way we’ve cut the deal with them, gives us an opportunity to ensure that our grid is stronger and more resilient and to be able to do it without bearing that cost onto the ratepayers. Look, we cut the best deal. We sat down with Meta, at the very beginning, two years ago, and I said, look, if you want to come to Louisiana, these are our terms, you have to build the generation, you have to help build the grid resiliency, you have to pay for it as it goes. And they said yes. And so, there is a path. And I think the other thing, too, is, I don’t know if people understand the value of those data centers, you can’t stream things onto your TV screen or your computer screen or your smartphone without it. You can’t put all of those pictures in a cloud, you can’t get emails and texts and all of the apps and things that we use on a daily basis without those data centers. They are a vital infrastructure object for America’s economy.”
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