By JIM BUTLER

The Public Service Commission is scheduled to vote December 16 whether to allow construction of a electrical transmission line across portions of Rapides and other parishes.

Entergy proposes to erect the line from St. Landry Parish to Richland Parish, supplying part of the load needed to power a Meta data center.

At three days of evidentiary hearings earlier this month, it was noted the center will require 4,50O megawatts almost continuously.

That load is equivalent to four times the peak demand for all of New Orleans.

Entergy says the grid addition will provide better service for all customers, with Meta carrying most of the rate freight.

Special-interest organizations and those in the power line’s path are skeptical.

They worry that declaring a public necessity and benefit lays groundwork for expropriation of right of way that some owners don’t want to provide.

The 250-feet wide path enters Rapides south of Cheneyville and works north and east, exiting into LaSalle Parish in the vicinity of Catahoula Lake.

Over its route from St. Landry to Richland 450 different tracts of land are involved.

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