<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet href="/rss.xsl" type="text/xsl"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Kingfish — News</title><description>Stories tagged “News” on Kingfish.</description><link>https://kingfish.la/</link><language>en-US</language><managingEditor>tips@kingfish.la (Kingfish)</managingEditor><webMaster>tips@kingfish.la (Kingfish)</webMaster><copyright>CC BY 4.0 The Kingfish Project</copyright><atom:link rel="self" href="https://kingfish.la/tag/news/rss.xml" type="application/rss+xml"/><atom:link rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"/><atom:link rel="usage-terms" href="https://kingfish.la/legal/ai-use"/><category>News/Investigative Journalism</category><image><url>https://kingfish.la/favicon.svg</url><title>Kingfish</title><link>https://kingfish.la/</link></image><item><title>Comment on the Sunstripe Solar permit before the August 2 deadline</title><link>https://kingfish.la/comment-on-the-sunstripe-permit/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://kingfish.la/comment-on-the-sunstripe-permit/</guid><description>The only public comment window on the 10,356-acre Sunstripe Solar project closes August 2, 2026. Here&apos;s the permit number, the address, and how to weigh in.</description><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:06:15 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Right now, there is exactly one public process open on the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar/&quot;&gt;10,356-acre Sunstripe Solar project&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;near Hineston — a 16-square-mile buildout on the Rapides–Vernon parish line — and it closes soon. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking comments on the project&apos;s federal wetlands permit until&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;August 2, 2026.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;After that, this window is gone. The bigger local moments — the parish-mandated community meeting, the planning commission review, the police jury votes — are all still ahead, but this is the one that&apos;s live today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You don&apos;t need to be an expert, and you don&apos;t need to oppose the project. By law, the Corps has to consider what you send.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;the-essentials&quot;&gt;The essentials&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Permit number:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;MVN-2026-00184-WLL&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;(put this on whatever you send)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deadline:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;August 2, 2026&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read the notice first:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Public-Notices/Article/4537854/mvn-2026-00184-wll/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;permit MVN-2026-00184-WLL&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Three ways to comment:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;the Corps&apos; Regulatory Request System —&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;— search &quot;MVN-2026-00184-WLL&quot; and attach your comment.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Email:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;Project Manager Michael Herrmann,&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;michael.h.herrmann@usace.army.mil&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mail:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, Attn: Michael Herrmann, Public Notice MVN-2026-00184-WLL, 7400 Leake Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118-3651&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;what-to-actually-say&quot;&gt;What to actually say&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;A comment is evidence, not a vote — five hundred identical postcards count as one argument made five hundred times. What carries weight is specific, local, firsthand knowledge tied to the factors the Corps must weigh: flood hazards, water quality, fish and wildlife, and the rest. The road that floods, the well you drink from, the creek the transmission line would cross.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We&apos;ve written the full playbook in two evergreen guides:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/how-to-read-a-public-notice/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to read a public notice&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;— how to pull the facts out of the Corps document in five minutes.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/how-to-comment-on-a-federal-permit/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to comment on a federal permit&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;— what makes a comment count, the two rights most people don&apos;t know they have, and a one-page structure that works.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;For how this permit fits into the three other approvals the project still needs, see&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/how-solar-projects-get-permitted-in-louisiana/&quot;&gt;How a solar project gets permitted in Louisiana&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Part of Kingfish&apos;s coverage of the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar/&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sunstripe Solar project&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Spot an error? Receipts welcome: tips@kingfish.la.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><dc:creator>Bentley Hensel</dc:creator><category>News</category></item><item><title>England Airpark to require protest permits — though no incident prompted it, director says</title><link>https://kingfish.la/england-airpark-permits/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://kingfish.la/england-airpark-permits/</guid><description>The England Authority&apos;s director says no incident prompted its proposed permit rules for protests at the airport — the nation&apos;s top deportation-flight hub. A sheriff&apos;s office request did; the text posts Wednesday, with a vote in August.</description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 23:33:49 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;div class=&quot;kg-card kg-callout-card kg-callout-card-green&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;kg-callout-emoji&quot;&gt;📝&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;kg-callout-text&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;strong style=&quot;white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Disclosure:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/b&gt; The Kingfish Project is the requester of the public records described in this story.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/what-is-the-england-authority/&quot;&gt;England Authority&lt;/a&gt; is advancing new rules that would require permits for protests and other &quot;expressive assemblies&quot; on its property — land that includes England Airpark and Alexandria International Airport (AEX), home to the nation&apos;s busiest hub for federal deportation flights.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The proposal grew out of a request from the sheriff&apos;s office to clarify some of the Authority&apos;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://library.municode.com/la/england_air_park_-_alexandria/codes/code_of_ordinances?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;existing ordinances&lt;/a&gt; — not from any protest or disturbance, Executive Director Ralph Hennessy told The Kingfish Project in a written response Monday afternoon. &quot;There haven&apos;t been any issues here that prompted the need,&quot; he wrote.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Rapides Parish Sheriff&apos;s Office provides security at England Airpark under contract with the Authority. Hennessy did not say what the office asked to have clarified or which ordinances were involved. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Kingfish Project has requested comment from Sheriff Mark Wood&apos;s office and will update this story with any response.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Demonstrations connected to airpark property have already occurred. Last August, a group gathered outside AEX to protest the ICE staging facility at the airport, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kalb.com/video/2025/08/11/ice-protest-outside-alexandria-international-airport/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;KALB reported&lt;/a&gt;, and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://rapidesparishjournal.com/2026/07/16/england-panel-ponders-public-assembly-rules/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Rapides Parish Journal&lt;/a&gt;, which first reported the proposal, cited immigration enforcement and data center development as examples of activities that draw crowds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hennessy said the full text will be attached to the board&apos;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/agencies/england-economic-industrial-development-district/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;meeting agenda&lt;/a&gt;, which the Authority will post Wednesday. The ordinance will be introduced at the board&apos;s Thursday, July 23, session and voted on at the August board meeting, he said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Admin/Legal Committee reviewed a draft of the ordinance at a &lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/agencies/england-economic-industrial-development-district/meetings/2026-07-16/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;noon meeting on July 16&lt;/a&gt;. Hennessy said the committee took no vote and made recommendations that will be incorporated before the proposal reaches the board. According to the Journal, the draft provides for content-neutral regulation of demonstrations, protests, rallies, vigils, picketing, and other expressive assemblies on Authority property, sets permit procedures for certain planned demonstrations, and addresses spontaneous ones.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The committee consists of &lt;a href=&quot;https://englandairpark.org/england-authority/board-of-commissioners/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Myron Lawson Jr., chair; Charlie Weems, vice chair; and Steve Mansour&lt;/a&gt;. Authority Chairman Oday Lavergne serves as an executive official member. The Kingfish Project put its four questions to the three members and Lavergne as well; Hennessy answered for the Authority within the hour, and the others did not respond individually.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Monday, The Kingfish Project also filed two public records requests with the Authority by email. The first seeks every draft of the proposed ordinance — including the original electronic files, whose properties and revision histories identify who wrote and edited them — along with communications about the proposal among Authority officials and with outside parties, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the data center developer Applied Digital, and other public bodies, a category that covers any written request from the sheriff&apos;s office. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The second seeks the Authority&apos;s security incident logs and reports from July 1, 2023, to the present, including every report involving a protest, demonstration, or other assembly — records that would test Hennessy&apos;s statement that no incidents prompted the rule. The Kingfish Project will publish both requests in full.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/how-louisianas-public-records-law-works/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer&quot;&gt;Louisiana&apos;s Public Records Law&lt;/a&gt; requires a custodian to produce available records immediately, and in all cases to provide a written determination or a time estimate within five business days — silence past that point is a legal denial (&lt;a href=&quot;https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=99691&amp;ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;La. R.S. 44:32(D)&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=99703&amp;ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;44:35(A)&lt;/a&gt;). For requests filed Monday, that window closes July 27, four days after the board&apos;s July 23 session. Wednesday&apos;s agenda posting will make the current text public, but it does not address the drafts, communications, or incident records the requests seek.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/agencies/england-economic-industrial-development-district/&quot;&gt;England Authority&lt;/a&gt; is a political subdivision of the state, and its property is public property. Courts have long allowed governments to impose content-neutral rules on the time, place, and manner of assemblies on public land. They have struck down permit systems that give officials discretion over who may gather, including in &lt;a href=&quot;https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/394/147/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham&lt;/a&gt; (1969) and &lt;a href=&quot;https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/123/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement&lt;/a&gt; (1992). Whether the England proposal contains such discretion can be judged once the text posts with Wednesday&apos;s agenda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The proposal arrives amid heightened national attention to Authority property. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ice.gov/node/68153?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Alexandria Staging Facility&lt;/a&gt;, a 400-bed ICE detention site operated on the airport tarmac by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.geogroup.com/facilities/alexandria-staging-facility/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;GEO Group&lt;/a&gt; since 2014, has become the country&apos;s top hub for deportation flights, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/ice-flight-monitor?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Human Rights First&apos;s ICE Flight Monitor&lt;/a&gt; counted more than 4,400 immigration enforcement flights in and out of AEX in 2025, &lt;a href=&quot;https://apnews.com/article/ice-deportation-immigration-flights-f61941d31adf43a6a01cccc720f3bb01?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;the Associated Press reported&lt;/a&gt;. In late June, ICE signed a contract for a new 528-bed holding facility for families and children at the former air base, &lt;a href=&quot;https://apnews.com/article/ice-new-deportation-facility-louisiana-children-families-02ce99eb592b4e392b5685b11368ca58?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;according to the AP&lt;/a&gt;; Hennessy confirmed the contract in that reporting. ICE describes the new site as a staging area rather than a detention center.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The board&apos;s monthly session is scheduled for Thursday, July 23, with the proposed ordinance due to appear on the agenda that the Authority posts on Wednesday. The Kingfish Project will publish the text and any records produced in response to its requests.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><dc:creator>Bentley Hensel</dc:creator><category>News</category></item><item><title>The 10,356-acre solar project quietly taking shape near Hineston</title><link>https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://kingfish.la/about-sunstripe-solar/</guid><description>Treaty Oak Clean Energy — owned by funds tied to Cleco&apos;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.</description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Jul 2026 02:05:45 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;A Texas company wants to build one of the largest solar projects in Louisiana history on timberland around Hineston, and the first formal public notice of any kind appeared eleven days ago — in a federal permit filing most people will never see.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The project is called&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sunstripe.com/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Sunstripe&lt;/a&gt;. The developer is&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.treatyoakcleanenergy.com/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Treaty Oak Clean Energy, LLC&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;of Austin, Texas, working through a subsidiary named TO LA Solar 1, LLC. On July 13, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers&apos; New Orleans District published a&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Public-Notices/Article/4537854/mvn-2026-00184-wll/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;public notice&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;— permit application MVN-2026-00184-WLL — asking for comments on the company&apos;s request to build:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;4,554-acre Phase 1 solar array and substation&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;5,688-acre Phase 2 solar array&lt;/strong&gt;, and&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;9-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;on steel monopoles, occupying another 114 acres, to carry the power to the grid.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&apos;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;10,356 acres in total — about 16 square miles&lt;/strong&gt;, an area roughly 60 percent the size of the city of Alexandria. The project site is centered at 2307 LA Highway 121 in the Hineston community, in the pine country where Rapides Parish meets Vernon Parish. The&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll15/id/11069?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;notice and its 47 pages of maps and drawings&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;are public. Kingfish found no press release, no news coverage, and no public announcement of the project anywhere before that notice appeared.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;kg-card kg-callout-card kg-callout-card-green&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;kg-callout-emoji&quot;&gt;ℹ️&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;kg-callout-text&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;strong style=&quot;white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Update, July 22, 2026:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Corps has answered the four questions Kingfish put to it on July 17. We&apos;ve folded those answers into the relevant sections below and logged each change in the&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;&lt;strong style=&quot;white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;section at the end. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;the-short-version&quot;&gt;The short version&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Treaty Oak, owned by funds managed by Australian financial giant Macquarie, has been quietly developing Sunstripe since at least spring 2023, when an affiliate entered the regional grid operator&apos;s connection queue — a step that requires proof the company already controls the land.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The federal wetlands permit now open for comment is one of&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;three&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;layers of government approval the project needs. The other two — a state solar permit and a Rapides Parish solar farm permit — show no sign of having started.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Rapides Parish adopted its own solar ordinance in June 2025 and opted out of the state&apos;s siting rules in December. Before construction, the ordinance requires Treaty Oak to hold a public meeting in the community, post a decommissioning bond, submit economic and wildlife studies, and pay the parish a permit fee equal to&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;1 percent of construction costs&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Grid records say the project can&apos;t realistically deliver power before 2028. The paperwork being filed now locks in land, permits, and corporate structure years ahead of that.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Nobody has said who will buy the electricity. The corporate family tree — which connects the developer, the local utility, and the company building the Delta Forge data center near Boyce — raises questions Kingfish has put to every party involved.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;what-the-federal-filing-says&quot;&gt;What the federal filing says&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Corps notice covers one narrow question: whether Treaty Oak may disturb federally protected wetlands and streams. Under&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Section 404 of the Clean Water Act&lt;/a&gt;, anyone who wants to fill, clear, or build in &quot;waters of the United States&quot; — including forested wetlands — needs a permit from the Corps first.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to the notice, the solar panels themselves are sited to avoid jurisdictional wetlands entirely. The impacts come from the 9-mile transmission line — what the industry calls a &quot;gen-tie,&quot; the private power line that carries electricity from a plant to the grid. Building it would permanently convert&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;18.5 acres of forested wetlands&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;to lower-growing cover: 8.53 acres of cypress/tupelo swamp, 5.03 acres of bottomland hardwoods, 2.86 acres of pine savanna, and 2.02 acres of pine plantation, plus about a hundredth of an acre of permanent fill where poles go in. The line crosses the upper Calcasieu River. Treaty Oak proposes to offset the damage by purchasing credits from a wetlands mitigation bank — in plain terms, paying for restoration work somewhere else in the watershed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Corps&apos; initial wildlife screening found the project &quot;may affect&quot; two federally protected species: the&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Louisiana pinesnake&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— one of the rarest snakes in North America, native to the longleaf pine woods of west-central Louisiana and East Texas — and the&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;northern long-eared bat&lt;/strong&gt;. On July 21, the Corps confirmed to Kingfish that it has reached out to the Fish and Wildlife Service for consultation under&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fws.gov/law/endangered-species-act?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act&lt;/a&gt;, and that its preliminary &quot;may affect&quot; finding covers the pinesnake, the northern long-eared bat, and critical habitat. The company&apos;s own maps show the Phase 2 site sitting against the Kisatchie National Forest boundary, with&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Cooters Bog&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— a natural area known for its carnivorous pitcher plants — and mapped pitcher plant habitat flagged at the site&apos;s southwestern edge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two caveats worth knowing. First, the Corps itself states that the information in the notice was furnished by the applicant and has not been independently verified. Second, there&apos;s a geography discrepancy: the notice text says the project is &quot;within Rapides Parish,&quot; but the applicant&apos;s own engineering drawings are titled &quot;Rapides and Vernon Parishes,&quot; and the maps show the parish line running through both solar sites. Kingfish asked the Corps to clarify. On July 21 it answered that the project site does span both Rapides and Vernon parishes, but the areas &quot;with potential impacts regulated under Section 404 are within Rapides Parish,&quot; which is why the Corps lists its permitting review under that parish. That resolves which parish governs the&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;federal&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;review — but not which set of&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;local&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;rules applies to Phase 2, a question taken up further down.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;who-is-treaty-oak-%E2%80%94-and-who-is-behind-treaty-oak&quot;&gt;Who is Treaty Oak — and who is behind Treaty Oak&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Treaty Oak is an independent power producer — a company that builds power plants and sells the electricity — and&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/01/09/treaty-oak-clean-energy-begins-construction-on-385-mw-louisiana-solar-portfolio/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;a portfolio company of Macquarie Asset Management&lt;/a&gt;, the giant Australian investment manager, with a reported 17.3-gigawatt development pipeline across the U.S.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sunstripe would be Treaty Oak&apos;s third and by far largest Louisiana project. In October 2025 the company&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251030625910/en/Treaty-Oak-Clean-Energy-and-Meta-Sign-Long-Term-Power-Purchase-Agreements-for-Two-Louisiana-Solar-Projects?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;announced power purchase agreements with Meta&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;for the 185-megawatt Beekman project in Morehouse Parish and the 200-megawatt Hollis Creek project in Sabine Parish — deals Meta&apos;s energy chief tied directly to powering its AI data center in Richland Parish. Treaty Oak&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.treatyoakcleanenergy.com/news/treaty-oak-clean-energy-llc-closes-financing-in-louisiana-january-8-2026?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;closed roughly $809 million in combined financing and started construction on both&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in early 2026, targeting operation in late 2027. Dashiell, the high-voltage contractor on those projects, is the same firm whose name appears on Sunstripe&apos;s transmission drawings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Our commitment in Louisiana extends well beyond these two projects,&quot; Treaty Oak CEO Chris Elrod&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.powermag.com/meta-signs-ppas-with-treaty-oak-clean-energy-for-louisiana-solar-projects/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;told POWER magazine&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in November. Sunstripe appears to be what he meant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Macquarie connection is where central Louisiana readers should pay attention, because funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management currently sit on three sides of the region&apos;s energy map:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The developer.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;Treaty Oak, as above.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The utility.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;A Macquarie-led investor group&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cleco.com/media/press-releases/detail/2016/04/13/north-american-led-investor-group-completes-acquisition-of-cleco?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;took Cleco private in 2016&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in a deal valued at about $4.7 billion. On April 27 of this year,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.macquarie.com/au/en/about/news/2026/macquarie-asset-management-led-consortium-to-sell-cleco-to-stonepeak-and-bernhard-capital-partners.html?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Macquarie, BCI, and Manulife announced an agreement to sell Cleco&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to Stonepeak and Baton Rouge-based Bernhard Capital Partners — a deal&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-27/stonepeak-and-bernhard-to-buy-cleco-from-macquarie-led-group?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;reported at $5.75 to $6 billion&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;that is still pending regulatory approval, including from the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Until it closes, Macquarie-managed funds remain co-owners of the Pineville-headquartered utility — and Sunstripe&apos;s transmission line runs straight to a Cleco substation.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The data center company.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;In January 2025, Macquarie Asset Management&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/117/applied-digital-agrees-to-build-a-partnership-with?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;agreed to invest up to $5 billion&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in Applied Digital&apos;s high-performance computing business, taking a 15 percent equity stake in that segment, with the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.macquarie.com/us/en/about/news/2025/mam-closes-first-investment-in-partnership-with-applied-digital-providing-up-to-us5billion-in-funding-to-support-high-performance-computing-growth.html?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;right to fund the company&apos;s future data center campuses&lt;/a&gt;. Applied Digital is the company building&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Delta Forge 1&lt;/strong&gt;, the 430-megawatt AI data center campus near Boyce that&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/144/applied-digital-breaks-ground-on-delta-forge-1-a-430-mw-ai?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;broke ground in January&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and in April&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/149/applied-digital-announces-new-u-s-based-high?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;signed a $7.5 billion, 15-year lease&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;with an unnamed U.S. hyperscaler for 300 megawatts of computing load, with operations expected to begin in mid-2027. Kingfish&apos;s reporting has identified APLD ALX-01 LLC — a subsidiary listed in&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ir.applieddigital.com/sec-filings/annual-reports/content/0001144879-25-000021/0001144879-25-000021.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Applied Digital&apos;s most recent annual report&lt;/a&gt;, which never mentions the word &quot;Louisiana&quot; — as the entity behind the Boyce campus.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two fairness points. Different Macquarie-managed funds, with different investors, hold these different stakes — a shared manager is not the same thing as a single owner, and the Cleco stake is on its way out the door. And nothing in the public record says who will buy Sunstripe&apos;s power, or that it has anything to do with Delta Forge. Treaty Oak&apos;s interconnection request predates any public word of the data center by more than two years. Kingfish has asked Treaty Oak, Cleco, Macquarie, and Applied Digital directly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two of them have now answered, and both drew a line between themselves and Sunstripe.&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Applied Digital&lt;/strong&gt;, in a July 22 statement attributed to Nick Phillips, its executive vice president of external affairs, said &quot;there is no connection between Applied Digital and the potential solar facility,&quot; while allowing that &quot;it&apos;s possible that both companies may have had dealings with a common investor at some point in time.&quot; The company said it has&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;no&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;renewable-energy or power-purchase agreement — including a virtual PPA or renewable-attribute purchase — tied to Cleco&apos;s system or to any specific Louisiana generation project, and that it had no role in or awareness of Cleco&apos;s transmission or generation planning in the Boyce/Hineston area when it sited Delta Forge. It confirmed Delta Forge is designed for a 430-megawatt peak load and is expected to be served under a &quot;large-load contract with Cleco.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cleco&lt;/strong&gt;, for its part, said the Hineston project in the MISO queue &quot;is not a Cleco project,&quot; that Cleco &quot;did not submit the interconnection request,&quot; and that under federal open-access rules it &quot;cannot comment on non-Cleco transmission projects.&quot; Both responses are consistent with the public record as we have it; neither is independently verifiable, and both come from parties with an interest in the answer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;what-the-grid-records-show&quot;&gt;What the grid records show&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sunstripe has been in the works far longer than eleven days. Records from&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.misoenergy.org/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;MISO&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;— the multi-state grid operator Louisiana belongs to — show project&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;J3479&lt;/strong&gt;: a 200-megawatt solar project at a point of interconnection called &quot;Hineston,&quot; in Rapides Parish, with Cleco Power LLC as the transmission owner. The request was filed in MISO&apos;s 2023 study cycle, meaning by that spring. MISO&apos;s rules require an applicant to document control of the project land when it applies — so Treaty Oak had Hineston-area acreage locked up by 2023, two years before anyone in parish government voted on a solar ordinance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The queue entry lists a February 2027 in-service date. That date is not going to happen.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://cdn.misoenergy.org/Definitive%20Planning%20Phase%20Schedule629192.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;MISO&apos;s own current schedule&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;shows Sunstripe&apos;s study cycle — 23 projects totaling 4,676 megawatts across MISO&apos;s southern region — still in the middle of its second study phase, with the interconnection agreements (the contracts that actually let a plant plug in) not projected to be signed until&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;August 2027 at the earliest&lt;/strong&gt;, a date that slipped by 15 days in the last month alone. Realistically, that puts construction and first power in&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;2028 or later&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One more detail: 200 megawatts accounts for roughly one of Sunstripe&apos;s two phases. The engineering drawings for &quot;Sunstripe II&quot; list a facility of about 224 megawatts on its own. Kingfish has not identified a second interconnection request, and the project&apos;s total planned capacity has not been disclosed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;the-rules-sunstripe-still-has-to-clear&quot;&gt;The rules Sunstripe still has to clear&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The federal wetlands permit is the only public process running right now. It is not the biggest hurdle. There are three layers:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. The Corps&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— the Section 404 permit described above, plus a state water quality certification from LDEQ that &quot;may be required.&quot; The Corps told Kingfish on July 21 that if LDEQ determines a certification is required for this project, &quot;this certification must be obtained before USACE can render its permit decision&quot; — meaning the state agency holds an effective veto over the timing of the federal permit. As of this week, Kingfish could find no LDEQ file opened for the project.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. The State of Louisiana.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1425593&amp;ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Act 279 of 2025&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;made it illegal to build or operate any solar facility of 75 acres or more without a permit from the state — now the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dce.louisiana.gov/page/solar-permitting?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Department of Conservation and Energy&lt;/a&gt;. The law also wrote statewide siting standards (setbacks, noise limits, decommissioning security) for large solar farms, applying to projects that start construction after Jan. 1, 2026 — with one big exception, which brings us to:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Rapides Parish.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;On June 9, 2025, the Rapides Parish Police Jury&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/agencies/rapides-parish-police-jury/meetings/2025-06-01/&quot;&gt;unanimously adopted a Solar Farm Ordinance&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;drafted by the Rapides Area Planning Commission (&lt;a href=&quot;https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/June-9-2025-Minutes.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;official minutes&lt;/a&gt;). Then on Dec. 8, the jury&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/agencies/rapides-parish-police-jury/meetings/2025-12-01/&quot;&gt;voted to opt out of the state&apos;s siting standards&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;— a move Act 279 allows for parishes with their own ordinances (&lt;a href=&quot;https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/December-8-2025-Jury-Minutes-Transcribed.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;official minutes&lt;/a&gt;). The practical effect: in Rapides Parish, the parish&apos;s rules — not the state&apos;s — govern where and how Sunstripe can be built. The state permit is still required either way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The parish ordinance has real teeth. Before construction, a solar developer must:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;obtain a parish solar farm permit, reviewed by the planning commission and approved by the police jury — a permit that&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;cannot be transferred to a new owner without jury approval&lt;/strong&gt;;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hold its own public meeting in the community&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;at least 21 days before the planning commission takes the application up;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;submit a third-party&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;economic impact report&lt;/strong&gt;, a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;wildlife report&lt;/strong&gt;, and a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;drainage plan&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;showing no adverse impacts within a mile;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;record its land leases in the parish conveyance records and give copies to the planning commission;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;honor setbacks of 100 feet from roads and property lines, and 500 feet from any occupied home, business, or church;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;post a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;decommissioning bond&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— a financial guarantee, of at least $500,000 and sized to the engineer-estimated cost of removing the whole facility someday, with the landowner as primary beneficiary — so taxpayers aren&apos;t left holding dead panels; and&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;pay a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;$10,000 application fee plus a permit fee equal to 1 percent of the project&apos;s total construction cost.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;For scale: Treaty Oak&apos;s other two Louisiana projects each cost roughly $400 million to finance. If Sunstripe&apos;s phases are in that range, a 1 percent fee would run into the millions of dollars — though the ordinance doesn&apos;t address how the fee applies to a project that straddles the parish line.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;The ordinance also reserves the jury&apos;s right to accept, reject, or modify any&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;industrial tax exemption (ITEP)&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Louisiana&apos;s program that can wipe out most of a project&apos;s property taxes for years — while explicitly leaving the door open to a&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;PILOT&lt;/strong&gt;, a negotiated payment in lieu of taxes. As of a July 17 search, no ITEP filing for Treaty Oak, TO LA Solar, or any Sunstripe-related entity appears in Louisiana Economic Development&apos;s project database for Rapides or Vernon parish.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Vernon Parish? The maps show Phase 2 crossing the line. Kingfish could not locate a Vernon Parish solar ordinance or Act 279 opt-out as of publication — if none exists, the&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;state&apos;s&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;siting standards would govern the Vernon side, meaning one project could be built under two different sets of rules depending on which side of the parish line a panel sits. We&apos;ve asked the Vernon Parish Police Jury.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As of publication, Kingfish found no record that Treaty Oak has applied for either the parish permit or the state permit. We&apos;ve asked the planning commission, the state, and the company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;timeline-how-we-got-here&quot;&gt;Timeline: how we got here&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Spring 2023&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— TO LA Solar 1 enters the MISO interconnection queue (project J3479, 200 MW, &quot;Hineston&quot; point of interconnection, Cleco transmission). MISO rules mean the company documented control of the land by then.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;June 9, 2025&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Rapides Parish Police Jury unanimously adopts its Solar Farm Ordinance.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aug. 1, 2025&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Act 279 takes effect: a state permit is now required for any 75-plus-acre solar facility in Louisiana.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Oct. 30, 2025&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Treaty Oak announces Meta power deals for its Morehouse and Sabine parish solar projects, tied to Meta&apos;s Richland Parish data center.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dec. 8, 2025&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Rapides Parish opts out of the state&apos;s solar siting standards, keeping its own rules in force.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jan. 8, 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Treaty Oak closes about $809 million in financing and starts construction on Beekman and Hollis Creek.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jan. 22, 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Applied Digital breaks ground on the 430 MW Delta Forge 1 data center campus near Boyce.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jan.–May 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Treaty Oak&apos;s consultants produce Sunstripe&apos;s wetland surveys and engineering drawings (the dates printed on the drawings in the Corps file).&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;April 23, 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Applied Digital announces a $7.5 billion, 300 MW hyperscaler lease at Delta Forge 1.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;April 27, 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Macquarie-led owners agree to sell Cleco to Stonepeak and Bernhard Capital; regulatory approval pending.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;July 13, 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— The Corps publishes the Sunstripe public notice.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aug. 2, 2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— Public comments due.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What&apos;s ahead&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;— a state solar permit, a parish permit (with its required community meeting), a Fish and Wildlife consultation on the pinesnake, and — per MISO&apos;s current schedule — no grid connection agreement before late 2027. Realistic first power: 2028 or beyond.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;what-we-dont-know-yet&quot;&gt;What we don&apos;t know yet&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the spirit of receipts over rhetoric, here is what we don&apos;t know: who owns and leased the 10,000-plus acres; who will buy the power; the project&apos;s total capacity and price tag; whether Treaty Oak will seek a tax exemption, a PILOT, or neither; whether Delta Forge or any data center figures in the plan; whether the required Vernon Parish rules even exist; and when — or whether — the parish and state applications will be filed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Army Corps answered on July 21, and Kingfish has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the complete application file — the permit application, the wetland delineation report, the alternatives analysis, and the compensatory mitigation plan. We will publish the rest of the answers, and the records, as they come.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;how-to-comment-%E2%80%94-before-aug-2&quot;&gt;How to comment — before Aug. 2&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any member of the public can comment on the federal permit. The Corps says comments are used to decide whether to issue, modify, condition, or deny the permit, and to determine whether a public hearing is needed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;through the Corps&apos;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Regulatory Request System&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Email:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;michael.h.herrmann@usace.army.mil — reference&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Permit Application MVN-2026-00184-WLL&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mail:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, Attention: Michael Herrmann, Public Notice: MVN-2026-00184-WLL, 7400 Leake Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118-3651&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Want more time?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;You can request an extension of the comment period — the request must be specific, must arrive before Aug. 2, and cannot stretch the total window beyond 30 days.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Want a hearing?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;Anyone may request a public hearing in writing within the comment period. State your reasons specifically; the Corps says hearing requests will be granted unless it finds the issues raised insubstantial. The Corps told Kingfish it will decide whether a public meeting is needed only after it has received and reviewed all comments — so the strength and volume of what the public files by Aug. 2 is itself what determines whether a hearing happens.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Know before you write:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;everything you submit — including your name, phone number, and address — becomes part of the public administrative record and can be released under federal records law.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;the-documents&quot;&gt;The documents&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Every source for this story is public: the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Public-Notices/Article/4537854/mvn-2026-00184-wll/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Corps public notice&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll15/id/11069?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;full drawing set&lt;/a&gt;;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.misoenergy.org/?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;MISO&apos;s interconnection queue&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://cdn.misoenergy.org/Definitive%20Planning%20Phase%20Schedule629192.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;study schedule&lt;/a&gt;; the Rapides Parish Police Jury minutes of&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/June-9-2025-Minutes.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;June 9, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rppj.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/December-8-2025-Jury-Minutes-Transcribed.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Dec. 8, 2025&lt;/a&gt;, archived with agendas at&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://kingfish.la/agencies/rapides-parish-police-jury&quot;&gt;kingfish.la&lt;/a&gt;;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1425593&amp;ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Act 279 of 2025&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and the state&apos;s&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dce.louisiana.gov/page/solar-permitting?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;solar permitting guidance&lt;/a&gt;;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://ir.applieddigital.com/sec-filings/annual-reports/content/0001144879-25-000021/0001144879-25-000021.pdf?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Applied Digital&apos;s FY2025 annual report&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and press releases; and company announcements from&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.treatyoakcleanenergy.com/news/treaty-oak-clean-energy-llc-closes-financing-in-louisiana-january-8-2026?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Treaty Oak&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.macquarie.com/au/en/about/news/2026/macquarie-asset-management-led-consortium-to-sell-cleco-to-stonepeak-and-bernhard-capital-partners.html?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Macquarie&lt;/a&gt;, and&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cleco.com/media/press-releases/detail/2016/04/13/north-american-led-investor-group-completes-acquisition-of-cleco?ref=kingfish.la&quot;&gt;Cleco&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;h2 id=&quot;updates&quot;&gt;Updates&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;We keep our stories honest by updating them in the open and telling you what changed. This is the running log for this piece.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;July 22, 2026 — The Corps answered our questions.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;On July 21, Ricky Boyett, chief of public affairs for the Corps&apos; New Orleans District, responded to the four questions Kingfish filed on July 17. We updated four passages above to reflect his answers. In short:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parish jurisdiction.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Corps confirmed the project site spans both Rapides and Vernon parishes, but said the areas &quot;with potential impacts regulated under Section 404 are within Rapides Parish,&quot; which is why it lists the review there. (Updated: &quot;What the federal filing says.&quot;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Endangered species.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Corps confirmed it has initiated Section 7 consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and that its preliminary &quot;may affect&quot; finding covers the Louisiana pinesnake, the northern long-eared bat, and critical habitat. It called the review &quot;very early in the process.&quot; (Updated: &quot;What the federal filing says.&quot;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;State water quality certification.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Corps said that if LDEQ determines a Section 401 certification is required, that certification &quot;must be obtained before USACE can render its permit decision.&quot; (Updated: &quot;The rules Sunstripe still has to clear.&quot;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Public hearing.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Corps said it will decide whether a public meeting is warranted only after the comment period closes Aug. 2 and it has reviewed the comments received. (Updated: &quot;How to comment.&quot;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Records.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Corps directed Kingfish to file a Freedom of Information Act request for the complete application file. We have filed it, and will publish what comes back.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;July 22, 2026 — Applied Digital and Cleco responded.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;Both distanced themselves from Sunstripe. Applied Digital said &quot;there is no connection between Applied Digital and the potential solar facility,&quot; while allowing the two companies &quot;may have had dealings with a common investor at some point in time,&quot; and said it holds no power-purchase agreement tied to any specific Louisiana generation project. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cleco said the Hineston project &quot;is not a Cleco project,&quot; that it did not submit the interconnection request, and that federal open-access rules bar it from commenting on non-Cleco transmission. Both statements are folded into &quot;Who is behind Treaty Oak&quot; above.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rapides Area Planning Commission&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;director Matt Johns responded  and agreed to discuss the local permitting process by phone; we&apos;ll report what we learn. As of this update, Treaty Oak, Macquarie, the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy, and the Vernon Parish Police Jury had not responded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kingfish contacted every company and agency named in this story with detailed questions. The Army Corps of Engineers responded on July 21; those answers are folded in above and logged in the Updates section. Responses from the other parties will be added as they arrive.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Corrections and tips: tips@kingfish.la.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><dc:creator>Bentley Hensel</dc:creator><category>News</category></item></channel></rss>