Sierra Club: Gov. Landry’s Data Center Order is Too Little, Too Late

Baton Rouge – After spending years as one of the nation’s biggest data center supporters, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has issued a hollow executive order calling for guardrails that would do far too little to protect Louisianans from the impacts of the very centers he has been courting. 

In response, Sierra Club issued the following statements:

“Gov. Landry wants to have his cake and eat it too, but it’s totally out of touch to welcome this massive data center boom and expect concerned Louisianans to go along with it,” said Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, Chair of the Sierra Club Delta Chapter. “We know what we stand to lose: reliable and safe water and affordable bills. Landry’s rose-colored glasses for wealthy tech companies forsake the kind of scrupulous decision-making that our people deserve. Secretive nondisclosure agreements abound in his administration. Meanwhile, neighbors to some of Landry’s favorite data centers contend with futures where promised jobs never materialize, loud humming keeps them awake at night, pollution makes them sick, water runs out, bills skyrocket, and farmland disappears. There is a path to reduce many of these terrible impacts, but Landry is miles away from it.” 

“Gov. Landry wants his constituents to think that he understands the concerns surrounding data centers in Louisiana, but nothing could be farther from the truth,” said Emma Pabst, Regional Manager for the Beyond Coal Campaign. “This ‘executive order’ is nothing more than breadcrumbs for Louisianans, who have known from the beginning that these centers pose enormous risks to affordability and their air and water. Interestingly, we are seeing quite a few of these orders across the U.S. recently, but most are too little, too late. If Landry was actually interested in meaningful protections, he would mandate that data centers specifically pay 100% of costs – not make vague statements on “fully funding” the buildout when his beloved Meta data center isn’t even doing that. Gov. Landry needs to mandate customer protections if data centers are not built as planned, and assurances that data centers are significantly powered by wind and solar to avoid high fuel costs, fossil fuel water waste, and environmental pollution. Louisianans don’t need empty promises; they need legally binding requirements that force tech companies to pay their fair share and reduce the harms they cause.”