Investigation
One of the largest solar projects in Louisiana history — a 10,356-acre, 16-square-mile buildout by Austin developer Treaty Oak on timberland near Hineston, on the Rapides–Vernon parish line. It surfaced with no announcement, through a single federal wetlands permit. Kingfish tracks the permits it still needs, the environmental stakes, the tangle of Macquarie-managed ownership behind developer, utility, and data center — and the question no one will answer: who buys the power?
Treaty Oak Clean Energy — owned by funds tied to Cleco's co-owner, which also bankrolls a local data center — wants federal approval for a 16-sq-mi solar buildout on Rapides/Vernon timberland. No public announcement. The only comment window closes Aug. 2.
The only public comment window on the 10,356-acre Sunstripe Solar project closes August 2, 2026. Here's the permit number, the address, and how to weigh in.
Background and definitions related to this investigation — not part of the numbered reading order.
A utility-scale solar project in Louisiana doesn't get one permit. It runs a federal, state, and local gauntlet — and waits years in the grid queue besides.
You don't need a lawyer to comment on a federal permit — and the agency is legally required to consider what you send. Here's how to write one that counts.
The most consequential documents in government are written to be skipped: dense, gray, and buried where almost no one looks. But every one of them starts a clock. Here's how to read a public notice like a reporter.
