This interview and the related new story is from Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action, in collaboration with Verite News and the Louisiana Illuminator.
State Sen. John “Jay” Morris spoke with Floodlight for more than 30 minutes by phone on May 16 about his role in bringing Meta’s Hyperion data center to Richland Parish and the land deals he and his business partners, the Franklin family have made before, during and after the project’s announcement.
Experts told Floodlight the senator’s actions raise a serious issue of a possible violation of state ethics laws designed to prohibit government officials from self-dealing; Morris responded that he has no conflicts under the law and did nothing wrong.
The Republican attorney said his land holdings are public record and that the legislation he supported applied to all data centers, not just Meta’s. Asked about his contact with a utility regulator ahead of a key vote on the power plants that will fuel Hyperion, Morris disclosed that he had been under a nondisclosure agreement with Entergy at the time.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
RELATED: This interview was published along with this Floodlight news story on the issue.
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Floodlight: The gist of the story is that you had involvement in your official capacity as a state senator in helping pave the way for this data center to come to Richland Parish …
Morris: I would say I had involvement, not minor. I didn’t carry any bills per se, but I voted for bills that would apply to all data centers. But this is obviously the biggest one that’s coming, and it’s coming to the area that I grew up in. I’m originally from Richland Parish.
Floodlight: There are a few different bills that I was looking at in particular. There were the tax abatement bills that you voted for, but then there were the two bills that had to do with the powers of Louisiana Economic Development. And basically, the timeline of it looks like first you co-authored the bill that gave LED the power to lease property, and shortly thereafter, they leased property to Meta. And then in the next session, in 2025, you co-authored a bill that then gave LED the ability to buy and sell property, and they shortly thereafter then sold the same property that they had been leasing to Meta.
Morris: I didn’t know that they sold property to Meta. But, the bill about the tax rebate, that’s applicable to any data center … We wanted to make sure that we were open for business, and apparently, you cannot attract a data center without some sort of tax abatement on purchases of computer equipment.
Manufacturers already have a complete exemption on the purchase of manufacturing machinery and equipment, but data centers didn’t. And a state is not gonna attract any of them unless you have that. So that was critical for not just the Meta data center but any data center that might wanna come to the state.
In any event, there’s no conflict. I mean, Louisiana’s ethics laws are that you can’t offer a bill that is just designed for one company. But if it affects a multitude, or any company that might wanna take advantage of it, there’s nothing wrong with that. It would be impossible for us to even function if that were the case.
(Jay Marcano/Gulf States Newsroom)
Floodlight: Did you disclose your land holdings when you were involved in those bills?
Morris: Yeah, it’s public record. I’ve got a list of my land holdings in my Tier 2 disclosure that I have to file every year (with the Louisiana Ethics Administration). And you can look in the public records in Richland Parish and see everything I own or that any company I’m affiliated with owns. And I’ve had that land the Franklins and I sold to Entergy for, geez, maybe 20 years or something like that.
Floodlight: Your land would be in the annual disclosures, but was it put into the legislative record at any point, and were your colleagues made aware of it?
Morris: A lot of my colleagues know I’m from Richland Parish, and a lot of my colleagues know that I have land holdings in Richland Parish, some of which are near the Meta site.
But no, I didn’t put it in the record and announce it. But there was nothing to require me to do that. And I don’t know why I would need to do that.
Floodlight: Did you ever recuse yourself from any decisions involving the data center?
Morris: There were no decisions on this particular data center. The other two LED bills you were talking about — a continuing effort to restructure LED — I had nothing to do with drafting those bills, although I did apparently sign on as co-author to one.
Those bills were being put together by legislators involved with the restructuring of LED so it can do a better job and … to make it a more effective agency. If they didn’t have the right to buy and sell or lease land to provide for economic development, their hands are tied, you know? Not that my vote would have made one difference one way or the other, but I don’t recall there being many votes opposed to either of those bills, but I can’t remember that far back.
But I mean, look, I understand it makes a nice story if you can try to show that I have some sort of conflict, but under Louisiana’s ethics laws, I don’t. And I didn’t market the property to Entergy. They actually came to the Franklins. I don’t think they even knew I had a half interest in it.
Floodlight: You reached out to (Public Service) Commissioner JP Coussan ahead of the vote to approve the power plant that they’re now gonna build on that land that you sold.
Morris: I don’t remember reaching out to him, but we’re friends. We served in the House together. We served in the Senate together, and we chat every now and then. We may have talked about the approval process. I don’t remember. But I didn’t reach out to him ahead of the vote to encourage him to vote yes or no on anything.
Floodlight: He said you spoke in favor of the approval of the power plant.
Morris: Of course I’d be in favor. He was already in favor of it. We need the power plants. Entergy needs them, and of course Meta needs them, but so do other customers. It’s a really positive thing for Louisiana because Meta’s coming in and underwriting all these new power plants, which is gonna benefit a lot of people in the state.
Floodlight: Did Commissioner Coussan know about your land interests near the site?
Morris: I’m really sure he didn’t know I was going to sell any land to Entergy because I was under an NDA, and I couldn’t say anything to him anyway. I didn’t call him to encourage him to vote for it. But I probably did talk to him some and he may have asked me what I thought, but I don’t even remember. I certainly didn’t lobby him to vote for it.
Floodlight: I spoke to several lawyers who are experts in governmental ethics. One said your actions were, quote, “egregious.” How do you respond to that?
Morris: They’re wrong. I would guess that whoever you talked to probably has an axe to grind or is politically opposed to me, to what I do. They’re free to turn me into the ethics board, which I’m sure would do nothing. But if they think it’s egregious, why haven’t they turned me in?
Floodlight: That person highlighted the fact pattern that all of these things in isolation maybe don’t rise to the level of an ethics violation, but all of them together do sort of speak to both you using your position to influence this deal and also profiting from it.
Morris: So 20 years ago when I was buying land, that was some sort of nefarious thing?
Floodlight: Well, in the story, we focused on the past 15 months and the land deals you’ve done in that time.
Morris: It would be different if I had run out and bought some property right before this Meta deal — if I bought land after I learned about Meta coming, and then profited from it. That would be egregious. But the fact that I had land 20 years ago, and the fact that there was a bill coming that would attract data centers like Meta and like others that I think pretty much every Republican voted for — it just doesn’t hold water.
Floodlight: You were featured in a promotional video for Entergy announcing the Meta deal. Have you received any compensation from Entergy outside of those land deals?
Morris: I didn’t know I was in the promotional video … I never got any compensation for it. I don’t even remember that … I guess they randomly saw me and asked me a couple of questions.
Floodlight: There’s a development on Highway 183 and Thomas Road. You co-own it with the Franklins. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Morris: There’s no development there. There’s some dirt being taken out of there, but that’s it.
Floodlight: So it’s a quarry or something?
Morris: Yeah, it’s like a dirt pit.
Floodlight: Are you selling the dirt to Meta?
Morris: No. We’re not selling anything now. We were selling it to a contractor that was in turn selling the dirt to Meta. We didn’t have a contract with Meta or with any of the big contractors building the Meta site. But somebody down the food chain wanted dirt, and we had the ability to haul it.
Floodlight: It looks like you bought up some land in the path of the new transmission lines.
Morris: I don’t think so. I wouldn’t want a transmission line coming right through the middle of it. I’ve got transmission lines going through my property already, and I certainly don’t want any more. That wouldn’t have been an investment strategy.
Floodlight: What would you say to those who look at the facts and your real estate holdings and wonder if you’re acting in your own interest as opposed to the community’s?
Morris: I would say that the encouragement of economic development is positive for everybody, including me, but not limited to me.
