BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — On the inside, the hum of an airplane. But on the outside, Hurricane Milton violently churns right outside our window as BRProud joined the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in the skies.
We took off from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi to observe Milton’s power.
Lt. Col. Brad Boudreaux, who piloted the flight, explains that “Some of the data that we’re collecting, you can only collect it inside of the storm.”
As we headed south, the blue skies over Biloxi, Mississippi were soon replaced by the dark outer bands of Hurricane Milton while the crew began its work.
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Before we knew it, the navigator was setting us up for the first pass into Milton’s eyewall. Turbulence then increased dramatically as the aircraft dropped near 300 feet.
Why Hurricane Milton became so intense so fast — and why more storms may do the same
Even through the rough weather, the loadmaster continued with the mission as he deployed dropsondes. These fall to the water’s surface and act like a reverse weather balloon, collecting information on temperature, dewpoint, pressure and wind speeds.
This data is checked by the weather officer before being sent to the National Hurricane Center in real time. In that first eyewall pass, a dropsonde found winds of 165 miles per hour, confirming Milton’s status as a Category 5 storm.
Boudreaux recalls, “The first time we passed through [the eyewall] was pretty rough.”
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After the eyewall, we arrived in the calm eye of the storm where there is a blue sky above and a blue ocean below. The crew collected data nonstop as we continued on our flight path, heading to the eyewall once again.
Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm
With each pass, the navigator plotted a path through the eyewall for the pilots who have a front row seat to view the lightning that illuminates the dark. After five passes through the eye, the nine-hour flight comes to an end as we returned to base.
Boudreaux says he’s flown through many hurricanes and this one stands out. He recounts that “This is one of the stronger ones I’ve flown through. I wouldn’t say it’s the roughest. But definitely one of the strongest storms that I’ve flown through.”
The data from these flights are used to create better forecasts that are meant to help save lives by keeping you informed.
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Facebook parent Meta is planning an artificial intelligence data center in north Louisiana, a multi-billion-dollar project that would bring as many as 500 permanent jobs and serve as an endorsement of Louisiana as a home of major technology infrastructure if it is able to win regulatory approval.
An application to state regulators for a new power plant to support the project says that an unnamed company wants to build “a large and economically transformative facility” in Richland Parish.
In recent days, economic development officials and regulators have said publicly that the project is a data center, and is expected to involve an investment in the billions of dollars. Two sources familiar with the project who weren’t authorized to speak publicly say the company is Meta.
Data centers — airport-sized buildings filled with computer servers and other IT infrastructure — are a critical part of the AI boom that is rapidly transforming the global tech industry.
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Companies like Meta, Amazon and Microsoft are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to construct these processing hubs across the U.S. and overseas. Nothing of the scale of the Meta project has been proposed before in Louisiana, and state economic development officials, armed with a new tax credit to lure these projects, see them as way to attract high-paying jobs.
The project would also represent an economic development coup for Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican who is working to lower corporate tax rates and take on other business-friendly initiatives.
Landry’s office declined to comment. Meta did not respond to a request for comment on its role in the project.
“We’re a job jobs jobs administration, so we’re happy to see big projects,” said Stephen Swiber, the resilience officer for the Landry administration in an interview Tuesday, without referencing the Meta project specifically.
The $5 billion project is expected to employ 300 to 500 people with an average salary of $82,000, according to filings to the Public Service Commission from Entergy. The PSC is being asked to approve three new natural gas power plants and other generation updates from Entergy, at a cost of at least $3.2 billion, that would be used to power the facility.
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During a panel discussion Thursday at the Tulane Energy Forum, PSC Commissioner Eric Skrmetta said the data center could be up and running with accompanying power plants within three years. In addition, he said that there are three other AI data centers in various phases of planning in Central Louisiana.
Technology companies are increasingly drawn to Louisiana because of the state’s low electricity rates and amenable regulatory process, Skrmetta said.
“We are moving them through the process quickly,” said Skrmetta. “They’re finding a lot of impediments in other states that are keeping them from moving forward.”
The PSC will hear Entergy’s proposal on Wednesday and decide whether to hire a private consultant and a law firm to review the utility’s application. Entergy is requesting the commission to evaluate the proposal in ten months, and the project is expected to face opposition.
A handful of groups have requested to intervene in Entergy’s power plant proposal, including the Sierra Club and the Southern Renewable Energy Association.
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They’re raising concerns over the data center’s reliance on fossil fuels, high water demand and how ratepayers could be affected by Entergy’s proposal. The organizations are also worried about rushing the regulatory process for such a high-stakes project.
“They’re asking a whole lot and not giving time for people to take a position,” Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said.
‘A game changer’
The data center, if it wins approval, could be transformational for Richland Parish, home to about 20,000 residents in a corner of the state that has struggled with high rates of poverty.
Meta is expected to set up shop on over 2,250 acres of agricultural land off Hwy 183, according to a public notice. Two of the proposed power plants would be located near the facility at a site called Franklin Farms in the community of Holly Ridge, the Entergy filings says.
“It’s a game changer for northeast Louisiana,” said PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell, whose district includes the proposed facility.
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‘Tremendous opportunity’
Meta now operates more than two dozen data centers around the U.S. — massive facilities that can bring thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs.
Earlier this month, one of its newest data centers was completed outside of Nashville in Gallatin, Tennessee. The 800-acre campus has two buildings totaling more than 1.5 million square feet, with plans for a third underway. The $1.5 billion facility employed 1,100 constructions workers while it was being built and now has 100 full-time employees.
Those permanent jobs are technical and require skilled workers, typically with an associate’s degree, but do not require a four-year or professional degree, which makes Louisiana’s workforce well suited to the potential demand the centers will create.
Louisiana Economic Development has been a strong proponent of data centers. The agency supported legislation that went into effect this summer offering tax rebates on data center software and equipment, at a time when technology companies and private equity firms have ramped up investment in these facilities.
In an interview last month, LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois said that her administration is working to bring data centers to north Louisiana.
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“We have tremendous opportunity in that space. We have land and grid capacity,” Bourgeois said. “We have a workforce that is primed to deliver this kind of labor.”
The Louisiana Community and Technical College System was already working with the state to develop a curriculum to help train students for a career in the emerging field, Bourgeois said.
Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate reporter Liz Swaine contributed to this report.
Roishetta Ozane and her children walk in a second line through the French Quarter during the “Power Up in the Gulf” event for climate justice on Nov. 3, 2023. (Minh Ha/Verite News)
When environmentalist Roishetta Ozane saw swing states begin to turn red on election night, she said she was heartbroken. Despite massive campaigning efforts in key states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris was losing the race to former president and now president-elect Donald Trump.
“At first I felt sad and just kind of hopeless,” Ozane said. “Then I felt angry that so many people didn’t vote. I also felt like it was just like a punch in the gut. I feel like we had done everything, we had made sure people were educated on the issues.”
Ozane is the founder and director of the Vessel Project of Louisiana, an environmental mutual aid group based in Lake Charles. The group provides rebuilding assistance to those who have been affected by hurricanes and campaigns against the fossil fuel industry, which dominates large parts of the region and poses risks to residents through ongoing emissions and, periodically, catastrophic accidents. On the day after the election, Ozane even thought about quitting her work as an environmental advocate as she remembered Trump’s first term.
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Trump has undermined efforts to fight climate change, and in his first term rolled back more than 100 environmental rules, most of which regulated air pollution and emissions standards.
RISE St. James founder Sharon Lavigne. (Photo provided by Goldman Environmental Prize)
Sharon Lavigne, the founder of environmental justice group Rise St. James, said that the election was a setback. She said that clean air and water won’t be a priority for the administration, and is concerned about Trump’s pro-fossil fuel stance. Rise St. James is currently fighting to prevent Formosa Plastics from building a sprawling multi-million dollar complex in St. James Parish. The parish lies in what many call “Cancer Alley,” the industrial stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known for high cancer rates and heavy industrial pollution from facilities near residences.
“I’m worried about them giving more power to industry to poison us,” Lavigne said. “They’re more concerned about industry than the people.”
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Lavigne’s worries were echoed by other environmentalists, such as Arthur Johnson, the executive director of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. He is worried that environmental justice will not be a priority for the federal government after Trump takes office in January.
“You can’t depend on public entities and public leaders to make these decisions that will benefit us,” Johnson said.
Trump announced Lee Zeldin, a former U.S. representative from New York, as his pick for the head of the EPA. Like Trump, Zeldin has a pro-energy, anti-regulation stance. While in Congress, he voted against numerous environmental protection policies, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, which has put billions of dollars into clean energy initiatives, from solar-powered housing to urban tree planting. Trump has promised to roll back the IRA and increase fossil fuel production.
Ozane said that the federal government should create protections for the environment and frontline communities while President Joe Biden is still in office in order to make it more difficult for policies to be undone once Trump is sworn in. She said Biden should make sure communities receive IRA funds before the inauguration, ban drilling on public land and declare a climate emergency to help move funds to frontline communities.
But in the next couple of days, Ozane no longer felt hopeless as she remembered her history.
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“We’ve always had to fight, especially as Black people, as people of color, as low-income people, we have always had to fight,” Ozane said. “We have always found a way to survive and thrive in our communities and the government is not who is going to save us. We are going to save ourselves.”
In the coming months, Ozane said she will organize and strategize to try to get the Biden administration to fulfill some of her environmental protection goals. Ozane and other Louisiana environmentalists are poised to increase community outreach and form networks that will help them protect themselves, with or without support from the federal government. Johnson said his organization will have more conversations about their work to broaden its impact.
“But we can’t just sit back and wait and say, ‘Let’s see what they’re going to do and then let’s act,’ because then we’re reacting,” Johnson said. “And my point is that we have to not react, but we have to act.”
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
RUSTON, La. (AP) — Daniel Batcho scored 38 points as Louisiana Tech beat Mississippi College 105-67 on Monday night.
Batcho added eight rebounds for the Bulldogs (4-0). Kaden Cooper added 15 points and eight rebounds. Amaree Abram scored 13.
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Odis Carter finished with 17 points and two steals for the Choctaws. JJ Harris added 16 points and four assists. Tyree Bracey had 14 points and two steals.
Louisiana Tech took the lead 19 seconds into the game and did not give it up. Batcho led his team in scoring with 12 points in the first half to help put them up 46-36 at the break.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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