Hoist on your own petard — an unpleasant surprise. A bomb that goes off in your hand. A screen pass that turns into a pick six. A developer's fantasy that puts Entergy in a bind of its own making.
On March 2, 2026, a Ridgeland developer filed a Rule 24 petition with the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Docket 2026-AD-10. He wants a declaration that a 350-megawatt gas-fired power plant plus an AI data center plus a semiconductor fab complex is exempt from PSC regulation under the landlord-tenant exception in Mississippi Code §77-3-3(d)(iv). He has no plant. No data center. No fab. No turbine ordered. No natural gas contract. No air permit. No interconnect agreement. No tenant named. No off-take agreement. Potential investors are "ongoing and undisclosed groups in New York and San Francisco." But the Public Service Commission must take this fantasy seriously. Laws written for landlords require the PSC to hold hearings on a Field of Dreams project — ostensibly to protect ratepayers but really to protect utility monopolies.The Pitch
A developer asks the PSC to bless a plant that does not exist, financed by people not named, to
power tenants not signed. The legal basis is a 1971 statute written so a landlord can include
electricity in the rent without becoming a utility. It was meant for an apartment owner with a
meter in the basement. The developer wants to bend it so a 350-megawatt merchant power
plant is not a public utility.Hoist on Their Own Petards
Utilities write, lobby for, and get laws passed designed for their protection and enrichment. They
are good at that. Here are three examples. (Number 3 may be a pick six against them.)
1. The 2008 Baseload Act, Senate Bill 2793, lets utilities recover construction work in progress
costs from ratepayers "whether or not" the plant ever operates. It enabled Mississippi Power's
Kemper boondoggle — a $2.3 billion lignite project that ballooned past $7.5 billion, never ran as
designed, and for which residential customers are still on the hook.
2. The 2023 Major Economic Impact Act, Senate Bill 2001, exempted the Entergy-Amazon deal from ordinary PSC scrutiny and jurisdiction. Secret rate. No competitive bidding. Entergy can spend $2–3 billion with a guaranteed return. The bill for excess spending goes to 461,000 retail customers. 3. The 2024 amendment to §77-3-3 says "the public" is "an individual person or an entity or a collection of persons or entities." It was designed to prevent multi-tenant behind-the-meter projects. The drafters did not anticipate that a developer would use the landlord-tenant exception in subsection (d)(iv) and ask the PSC to declare that the power plant he's promoting is not a public utility.
The Hoister
The developer worked at the Mississippi Development Authority — the same agency that
promoted the Amazon deal. He was Clinton's first full-time Director of Economic Development
before he left to launch PraCon Global Investment Group.
His firm developed Prado Vista at Ridgeland, a 77-acre TopGolf-anchored project with a 250-
room hotel and conference center, and Prado Lofts, a $50 million, 215-unit redevelopment of
the McRae's site. Jackson's mayor was at the groundbreaking in January 2026.
The developer endorsed the mayor's candidacy in April 2025. In November 2025 he received a
Vision Award along with Entergy Mississippi's CEO. (He's now the CEO's nightmare.) He knows
the agencies. He knows the politicians. He knows his adversaries. He knows the statute book. He
has not built a power plant or data center. But that's a minor detail. He's a quick study. Game
on.If he rides to a win before the PSC, it may be the death of Entergy's monopoly. That
threat, like an imminent hanging, tends to concentrate Entergy's mind. If Entergy loses its
monopoly, Mississippi Power can too. And more Humpty Dumpty utility monopolies may fall.
Utilities Scrambling
It's no wonder Entergy and Mississippi Power are scrambling with a legal full-court press.
(Conveniently, customers pay for utility lawyers.) In their haste, Entergy's lawyers had an oops.
They were two hours late filing Entergy's brief on April 13. The developer moved to strike it on
procedural grounds. He's got lawyers too. So Entergy may depend on Mississippi Power to
protect its monopoly. But hey, birds of a feather.The Off-the-Grid Fantasy
The developer has chutzpah. It may not be enough. His key argument is that the fantasy power
plant and data center complex will be off the grid (not connected to Entergy and MISO's power
plant network) — and is therefore not a utility. That seems to be fantasy too.
There are more than 5,000 data centers in the United States. Not one is completely off the grid.
Many have battery and diesel backup for short power outages. But my research shows all also
have grid backups — including Elon Musk's xAI campus in Memphis that was promoted as off
the grid. The reason: data centers must have reliable uninterruptible power. Grid backup
connections are necessary to provide it.
Chevron is attempting to build the first truly off-grid power-and-data-center complex in the U.S.
in the Permian Basin. Gas there is plentiful and cheap. The price was minus $3.70 per MMBtu
in March 2026. (You have to pay somebody to take it.) Chevron has billions to spend and
thousands of engineers to throw at its project. The developer has chutzpah. Is that enough?
So who will win the "what's a utility" fight? Based on past experience the PSC will probably find
a way for the utility giants to win. The odds are in their favor.
But Goliath was the favorite too. Life is full of surprises.Kelly Williams is Chairman of Bigger Pie Forum and author of this post.
This post is sponsored by the Bigger Pie Forum.
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