Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
An article by Stephanie Riegel — “Tiny Louisiana parish becomes AI boomtown as Meta builds $10B data center” — was published on Aug. 20 in the newspaper and discusses the project’s economic impacts on Richland Parish. The piece fails to adequately address the potential consequences of this drastic and likely temporary economic investment into a community that is already struggling. Richland Parish has a lower educational attainment average and employment rate than Louisiana as a whole. These factors likely contribute to the poverty rate of 23.5% — higher than Louisiana’s average by nearly five percentage points. The Meta data center is not a sound investment. It is the result of a reckless deal meant to appeal to corporate interests instead of creating sustainable wealth that would support Richland Parish residents. The prospect of 5,000 new jobs because of this project seems promising in a parish of just 20,000. However, Meta has not guaranteed that they will employ locals, and only 500 jobs are expected to be permanent. When the facility is complete and 5,000 workers leave Richland Parish, they will also take with them the business that they have provided — these brand-new RV lots, hotels, gyms and restaurants. Five hundred employees will not be enough to sustain a newly built economy that was designed to meet the needs of a working population 10 times as large. This project has costs. Those costs will not be borne by Meta, but by the residents of Richland Parish, who will be left with junk real estate and higher energy prices. Those are not factors that encourage growth and development — in fact, they encourage outmigration and disinvestment. The newspaper should not turn away from holding Gov. Jeff Landry's administration accountable for signing off on this deal that could do further damage to an already vulnerable Louisiana parish. MARION CANDLER student, Tulane University
