Christmas, 2025

This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday around noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Easter, Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Thursday, Dec. 25 being Christmas Day, I invite you to explore this link.

New panel must move faster to ease water concerns

It goes somewhat against the grain of Louisiana’s history of minimal government interference, but it might be time to for the state to adopt a comprehensive water management policy. And it has the means to do it if it gets to it.

Louisiana’s growing success with attracting data centers has introduced concerns about power and water provision. To date, estimates provided by potential locators have indicated no one of them will cause a shortage of power or produce a spike in costs nor cause a water shortage or even significantly deplete any particular source.

But success breeds success, and if the data centers keep coming, trouble will follow unless local governments decide to cut them off, forgoing tremendous economic development opportunities. While the Louisiana Public Service Commission can plan out the power side of things, an equivalent planning process on the water side has yet to surface.

Lewis on course to serve just one PSC term

Having their poster child arrested on suspicion of drunk driving isn’t exactly what Louisiana Democrats wanted as a holiday present, and his continued controversial behavior threatens to wear out his welcome with party elites and voters.

Democrat Davante Lewis famously defeated long-time incumbent Democrat Lambert Boissiere for the District 3 seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 2022, running an insurgency campaign. Despite starting only in the summer and spending about a quarter of Boissiere, Lewis positioned himself as a “progressive” Democrat and attracted huge out-of-state money to topple Boissiere both in overall fundraising and votes in the ordinarily low-stimulus race. In doing so, he became as well the highest-profile black elected official in state politics.

Lewis won while levying criticism against utilities, claiming his opponent and other PSC members were in the pockets of regulated utilities because they accepted contributions from them that contributed to higher rates, and spouting rhetoric against fossil fuel production over the myth of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. However, his 2023 campaign ethics annual report revealed donations from utilities outside of Louisiana and from entities in the renewable energy business (he has, in contravention with state law, yet to file a 2024 report).

Landry to enter Greenland history books?

So, one day in the future when Greenlandic schoolchildren are studying about their state’s independence will they see a picture of Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry in their textbooks?

Recently, GOP Pres. Donald Trump appointed Landry special envoy to Greenland. Special envoys are presidential picks, who may or may not be career foreign service employees, for temporary purposes to aid in a specific area of policy involving foreign states. Adding Landry to the roster (which may or may not require Senate confirmation) means the U.S. will have a baker’s dozen of these, most appointed this year by Trump.

It's unclear what exactly Landry’s new portfolio will be. Special envoys can have a day job and Landry certainly will keep his, but this may be a tactic by Trump on his quest to create more U.S. influence over the strategic geographic placement and resources that Greenland has. Trump has spoken of greater U.S. control over the area for security reasons, going so far as to say he would like to see it become part of the U.S.

LPSC makes good change, rejects Trojan Horse

A Louisiana Public Service Commission majority improved the state’s competitive position by streamlining its approval process for large power users while batting away a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Last week, the PSC approved a directive sponsored by Republican Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan that would cut red tape for such users, as defined by it. This permits quicker approval for projects that feature a minimum 15-year electric-service agreement with a new or expanding customer, confirmation from the Department of Economic Development that the project is a priority, and a user pledge that it will supply half of the revenue to cover at least half of its project’s fixed costs, which typically involves increasing transmission capacity.

Heretofore all requests to the PSC went through a usual process that might take up to two years for vetting. This new one, if the PSC agreed it met these criteria, could take only a third of that time. The Commission majority saw a need for this to expedite these, by definition, massive projects that, by definition, would take longer to get up and running and in the face of pressure from other states bargaining for locating these within their boundaries. By and large, this new procedure applies to data centers that collectively will require multiplicative increases in power over the next decade within the U.S.