VERMILION PARISH, La. — More details about the proposed $100 billion SpaceX site in Vermilion Parish have been revealed after companies submitted a coastal use permit application more than a week ago.

The group, called the Southwest Louisiana Coastal Infrastructure Improvement Project, submitted the application Sept. 25. It includes Space Exploration Technologies Corp., based in Starbase, Texas, and two Lafayette firms, Duplantis Design Group and Fenstermaker, according to NOLA.com.

Louisiana’s congressional races are highlighting a growing political divide over how much government should regulate the water and electricity use of data centers, as facilities such as Amazon’s Shreveport project and Meta’s Richland Parish campus expand, Louisiana Illuminator reports. 

Democratic candidates generally express concern about the resources data centers require and argue that stronger regulation or legally binding protections may be needed to ensure the facilities cover their costs, with several saying ratepayer protection pledges from companies and utilities are not enough. 

STARBASE, Texas — Plumes of vapor burst from the launchpad beneath the rocket, then a flame, pale in the early morning light, visible but silent.

The rocket rose steadily. A seagull screeched. People yelled: “Whoa!” and “Go!”

Then, as the rocket pierced the clouds, the sound arrived, about 30 seconds after ignition — a fast, pulsing rumble, like the thrum of one car window cracked open on the highway, but much stronger, deep enough to feel in your chest and rattle windows.

In just two short weeks, we've sat across the table from some of Louisiana's best and brightest, interviewing them for a seat at the Louisiana Launch Alliance.

A Louisiana business owner created the LLA for Louisiana businesses to secure Louisiana's prosperity. We've met with leaders in construction, mobile housing, commercial and residential real estate and development, banking and investments, environmental, hiring, and logistics.

Google’s prototype of its orbital compute satellite took off today onboard a SpaceX rocket launched from California — the first time the tech giant has sent one of its advanced chips into space.

Built by Planet Labs, the satellite will prove that a Google Tensor Processing Unit, its competitor to Nvidia’s GPUs, can function in space. That means supplying a kilowatt of continuous power, cooling the chip, and running a series of models through their paces to see if anything goes wrong.

Governor Jeff Landry is defending the state’s growing data center industry amid concerns about its impact on water supplies and electricity bills. Several data centers are already under construction in Louisiana, with more planned. Speaking at a State of the State luncheon in Monroe, Landry says the projects are important to the state’s economic future.

“We have a choice, like I said: We can smother it in fear, or we can set these basic rules; and we can get on watching opportunity grow here in this state. I, for one, am not going to allow fear to write your future,” Landry said.

At Rene’s Industries, the scale of the work can be counted in truckloads. 

Since March, the family-owned company has moved more than 1 million tons of material into the Modeste area for Hyundai Steel and CF Industries — more than 50,000 truckloads in a matter of months. 

On any given day, Rene’s Industries can have as many as 150 trucks on the road, hauling pump sand and limestone to industrial projects across the region. Some belong to the company’s own fleet. Others are operated by subcontractors working alongside it. 

I'm writing this from Acadiana this week, where I'm spending the next few days at the table with local business owners, parish leaders, and folks who've spent decades building what Louisiana runs on. And the same conversation keeps coming up: everybody feels the industrial boom happening around them, but almost nobody feels like they're actually in it.

In August, SpaceX officially announced its plans to build a facility in Pecan Island, Louisiana.

The Starbase in Vermillion Parish will be SpaceX's largest facility, encompassing an 18-mile stretch that will span 136,000 acres.

Construction is expected to begin by the end of 2027 and the first launch is planned for 2029, according to Louisiana Economic Development (LED).

GEISMAR — A new 200,000-square-foot distribution facility is coming to Ascension Parish off La. 30. 

The development, announced Tuesday by Ratcliff Development and JRE Capital, will be built in the early 200-acre Magnolia Ridge Logistics Park. 

The JRE and Ratcliff building will be the first building in the park and serve as the first phase of a planned multi-building development serving the petrochemical, logistics, warehousing and industrial service sectors. Construction is set to begin in the first quarter of 2027. 

If you're not paying attention, you're already behind.

Louisiana is in the middle of an industrial boom that comes around once a generation. And right now, before a single bid has even opened, I've counted 20 national industrial companies actively spending advertising dollars to reach the decision-makers. Twenty. Targeted digital ads, sponsored content, direct outreach to GCs — the whole playbook.

Meanwhile, I'm talking to local Louisiana businesses — the ones who've built this state's industrial backbone for decades — and I keep hearing the same thing: "We've got it under control."

Mississippi River mayors came together this week to help river communities evaluate data center proposals, as the facilities continue to rapidly expand across the basin. 

There are already more than 3,000 active data centers throughout the United States, including in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. Multiple facilities are taking shape in Louisiana.

As the need for artificial intelligence and data storage grows, more local leaders are being approached by companies interested in building data centers in their communities. About three-quarters of the data centers currently planned are in the South or Midwest, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. 

Fresh off announcing that Elon Musk’s SpaceX will build a massive spaceport in coastal Vermilion Parish, Louisiana is planning to compete for a new national space academy for the U.S. Space Force that would be located in New Orleans.

President Donald Trump, in late August, issued an executive order calling for the establishment of a space academy, similar to the existing military academies for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Last week, NASA invited interested states to begin the application process.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Metairie Republican, is leading the effort with Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration and GNO Inc., the regional economic development organization, to win the project for Louisiana and, specifically, for the New Orleans area.

(The Center Square) — Louisiana Economic Development is opening another $50 million round of funding to prepare industrial and commercial sites for future development, even as projects from the program's initial $150 million investment are still being built out.

Projects must be ready to begin construction within nine months, provide matching funds and demonstrate a way for the state to recover its investment. LED says the money can be structured through loans, state partnerships or investments in infrastructure. Awards can range from $500,000 to $25 million.

Ten thousand new jobs.

A hundred billion dollars in investment.

Construction starting in months, not years.

​

Those are the headline numbers behind Starbase Louisiana and other forthcoming projects.

They’re the kind of numbers that stop you mid-scroll. Mind-blowing investments here in my home state of Louisiana. WOW!

After I recover from the shock, I immediately think. Numbers that big don't build themselves.

Somebody has to pour the concrete, haul the materials, staff the trades, write the insurance, and keep the books straight while it all happens at a pace most companies have never had to operate at EVER.

HACKBERRY and LAFAYETTE, La. – On Thursday, Black Bayou Energy Hub announced a $1.6 billion investment to expand its Lafayette headquarters and develop critical natural gas infrastructure in Cameron Parish, strengthening Louisiana’s growing LNG corridor and supporting increasing demand from LNG exporters, power generators, utilities and manufacturers.

Across both sites, the company is expected to create 23 direct new jobs and retain five existing positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 35 indirect new jobs, for a total of 58 potential new job opportunities across the Southwest and Acadiana Regions. In addition, the project is expected to support more than 1,000 construction jobs at peak.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Angel Crawford, who owns 18 rental properties in northeastern Louisiana and runs a third-party website connecting tenants with property owners. Construction for Meta's largest-ever AI data center has begun in Holly Ridge, an unincorporated community about 10 minutes away from her home in Delhi.

My husband and I have been in Delhi for four years. We're originally from this area, but we've moved around because of our nursing careers. I was a quality manager, and my husband was a director of case management.

CALCASIEU PARISH, La. (KPLC) - A company confirmed it is exploring building a data center in Calcasieu Parish, but there are hurdles to clear before one could be built.

Azimuth Renewables has an option to buy more than 1,100 acres north of Moss Bluff — north of Coffey Road, between Paul White and North Perkins Ferry roads — although the company said any facilities would be located on only a fraction of the property.