Below is an Perplexity AI Summary of Kelley William's speech to the PSC last week, followed by a full transcript of Williams' talk:
Kelley Williams' speech to the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) delivered a pointed, richly detailed critique of what he frames as a secretive and problematic energy deal benefiting Amazon and Entergy at the expense of ordinary Mississippians. He uses humor and historical analogy to make a serious, evidence-backed argument: that the Amazon data center initiative and associated legislative changes threaten ratepayers and the oversight responsibility of the PSC, turning utility regulation into a "shell game" that disadvantages everyday consumers for the benefit of corporate giants and speculative economic development promises.
Williams opens with a personal note about the risks of being fooled by spin and disinformation. He underscores his credibility by describing his experience recognizing and resisting schemes that mislead the public. Citing Mark Twain, he sets the stage for his central theme: it's far easier to make people believe a lie than to make them “un-believe” it. This, he says, is particularly true in the case of the "secret" Amazon energy deal, a package crafted between Entergy, the Mississippi Development Authority, and the governor, then swiftly passed as Senate Bill 2001. The bill's hundreds of pages amounted to a framework for Amazon's rapidly growing investment and “unlimited spending by Energy for Amazon-related projects,” carried out away from public scrutiny.
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Context: Rising Electricity Demand and Secrecy: Williams acknowledges the credible experts who spoke before him but notes that basic economics points to a clear, troubling trend: electric rates are rising faster than improvements in supply, largely due to the outsized energy demands of artificial intelligence and new data centers such as Amazon's. He asserts that rather than seeing market competition pushing down prices, regulated monopoly utilities like Entergy keep rates high and protected, even as reliability concerns mount with a growing reliance on intermittent renewables like solar and wind. When energy runs short—specifically on peak demand days driven by Amazon's needs—there are hidden questions about whether the giant customer or all ratepayers will foot the bill for expensive emergency power, with terms obscured by secrecy.
The "Shell Game": How Costs Are Transferred: One of Williams's key points is that the so-called "secret deal" will effectively shift costs from Amazon onto small customers. He says plainly: when Entergy invests in new plants or infrastructure for Amazon, the legislation lets Amazon pay under a closed agreement, while small customers cover the difference. This comes on top of costs already rising from inflation, fuel, and supply-demand imbalances unrelated to Amazon. Williams likens the situation to a shell game where PSC oversight is eliminated, reinforcing that "higher rates are coming." His Paul Revere analogy—a warning sounded before disaster—underscores the urgent, public-service call for greater transparency and collective action among nearly one million affected customers.
Economic Development Hype vs. Reality: Williams is openly skeptical of the political hype that the Amazon investment is a boon for Mississippi. He reminds listeners of the disastrous Kemper County plant—promoted as an economic development winner based on lies and failed technology—that ended up costing billions with no permanent jobs created and permanent increases to power bills. He warns that energy regulators are repeating these mistakes by granting a "blank check" to Entergy, justified by urgency and the supposed need to deliver quickly for Amazon. The legislature, he says, has stripped the PSC of its traditional authority, leaving ratepayers exposed to unneeded, overpriced, and even failed projects with guaranteed utility profits nonetheless.
National Comparisons and the "Data Center Effect": Williams brings in comparisons from other states, noting that places like Virginia—with over 500 data centers—have seen residential rates spike 29% since 2020, and may double by 2030. Georgia and similar states show parallel trends. In each, he asserts, “the little guys subsidize giant corporations.” The Mississippi legislation is especially concerning, Williams says, because it sidelines the PSC to an unprecedented extent, giving Entergy unchecked discretion and eliminating safeguards like competitive bidding and caps on rate increases. The risk, he contends, is a self-reinforcing cycle where utilities seek ever-higher costs, because their regulated rate of return ensures that higher costs mean higher shareholder profits.
Disproportionate Impact on the Poor: Williams draws attention to Mississippi's high "energy burden"—the proportion of household income spent on utilities. Nearly half of residential customers are among the poorest in the U.S., and he calls it "embarrassing" for policy to increase their burden merely to subsidize powerful corporations. Unlike a rigged carnival game where a customer can walk away, Entergy's customers have no alternative because it is a state-sanctioned monopoly serving 45 counties. Williams argues this system is fundamentally unjust and "rigged against small customers".
Call for Action and Reform: Concluding his remarks, Williams makes several concrete recommendations and rhetorical challenges: He calls on ratepayers to demand clarity about coming rate increases and how much is driven by Amazon-related spending. He urges the legislature to "restore the PSC's historic authority" and create a watchdog agency independent of utility influence—a structure common in other states but lacking in Mississippi. He sharply criticizes the current Public Utilities Staff, arguing it serves utilities over consumers due to its composition and sources of advice. Williams also urges public skepticism, pointing to the fine print (notably Section 22 of Senate Bill 2001) that quietly enshrines the PSC's sidelining and the elimination of cost controls, transparency, and consumer protections for the Amazon deal. He laments the way customized industrial agreements may be locked in place for decades, immune to later legislative or regulatory correction, even if costs spiral.
Williams concludes with a "cost-plus-10" summary: Entergy, unlike competitive businesses, prospers more as its costs increase, and so has every incentive to promote costly projects. The Amazon deal, as pushed by Section 22, makes economic development for big corporations take priority over fair and reliable service for small customers. The market value of Entergy's parent has surged with these high-spending plans, but at severe potential cost to ratepayers. Williams urges the PSC, media, and public to “sound the alarm” and halt the transformation of state energy policy into a mechanism that sacrifices ordinary Mississippians for speculative growth and corporate profits.
Here is the full transcript of Williams' talk:
The Great Mississippi Shell Game Final 250924
Thank you. I am glad to be here. I’m going to talk about being fooled.
Olympic Silver.
I don’t mean to brag. But if being fooled were an Olympic sport, I’d at least win silver.
It’s said that nothing is foolproof for a sufficiently talented fool. I’m sufficiently talented. I have been fooled a lot. So I feel qualified to talk to you today about being fooled.
I don’t do this everyday. So I can’t wing it from memory like the professionals do.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain said: it’s easy to make people believe a lie. But hard to make them unbelieve it. .
My talk is about lies and spin that fool us about the secret Entergy-Amazon data centers deal.
Senate Bill 2001
There’s a lot of spin and disinformation about the secret deal. Entergy conceived it and worked with the Governor and the Mississippi Development Authority to put it together according to Entergy.
A compliant Legislature then passed Senate Bill 2001 in a two-day special session last January. The 300-page bill set the stage for a $10 billion investment (now $16 B) by Amazon for data centers and for unlimited spending by Entergy for Amazon-related projects.
We have heard from some credentialed energy experts today. I am not an expert - credentialed or otherwise. But I understand what they said. And I understand that electric rates are going up because demand for electricity is growing faster than reliable supply. Demand is growing due to Artificial Intelligence demand for data centers and to data centers demand for electricity.
I also understand that rates will go up even more for Entergy’s small customers if they pay for part of Entergy’s spending for Amazon’s data centers.
Perfect storm.
Prices go up when demand grows faster than supply. It’s an iron law of economics. Works for all commodities.
Prices for most commodities fall when supply catches up to demand. But the price for electricity never seems to fall. That may be because regulated monopolies produce electricity — and their markets and prices and mistakes are protected.
Prices for commodities also go up when there are doubts about supply reliability. More windmills and solar projects create doubts about supply reliability. They only produce electricity when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. The are not reliable. You might think unreliable power would be cheaper. You might be wrong.
So we have a perfect price storm. Fast-growing demand. Slow-growing, less reliable, more expensive supply.
Electric grids
Electric grids connect producers and users of electricity. Mississippi is a part of the MISO grid along with 14 other states. Entergy shares electricity with other utilities in the grids.
Emergency power: Who pays more?
When Amazon’s data centers start up and Entergy runs short of power on a hot summer afternoon, it may buy very expensive emergency power from other utilities. Who will pay for it?
Amazon, whose data centers will create most of Entergy’s demand? Or Entergy’s residential customers and small businesses? We don’t know. That’s a secret.
Every day power: Who pays more?
Entergy’s electricity that residential customers and small businesses use every day will also be more expensive — if small customers pay for part of Entergy’s spending for Amazon.
I want to explain this so small customers will understand why their rates are going up.
It’s simple: if Entergy spends more for plants and infrastructure for Amazon than Amazon pays under the secret deal, and Entergy’s small customers pay the difference, their rates go up. (That’s in addition to increases due inflation, tighter supply-demand balance, higher fuel costs, etc. unrelated to the secret deal.)
In the dark
Some small customers are concerned about higher rates. Others may not know what’s coming or may trust Entergy, the Governor, or the Legislature to do the right thing. They may be surprised and angry — when their rates go up..
Local news:
I write about this. So does Wyatt Emmerich, a real journalist, who is here today. The Magnolia Tribune runs our articles. Jackson Jambalaya, WLBT, and other local news sources do too. Thanks to all of you for sounding the alarm.
Preference cascade:
Thanks to you some people are waking up. If more people wake up, there may be a preference cascade. That happens when enough people realize they have a common problem and can do something about it. Rates will go up for about a million people in Entergy’s monopoly service area. That may be enough people.
Paul Revere
I represent Bigger Pie Forum. We try to wake people up. We are in the sound the alarm business — like Paul Revere.
“Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-Five. Hardly a man is now alive. Who remembers that famous day and year?”
Paul Revere’s message was simple: the British are coming. His job was to wake people up before it was too late.
Higher rates for small customers.
Our message is simple: higher rates are coming. The explanation is simple — but hard to believe. It’s hard to believe that our governor and legislators will make small customers pay more to benefit one of the world’s largest companies and one of the country’s largest electric utilities.
It’s understandable when politicians say: Amazon’s investment is good for Mississippi. But it’s not understandable when they say: Entergy’s uncontrolled spending for Amazon is good —when it will cause higher rates for over a million Mississippians. Or when politicians ignore it.
Entergy says rates were going up anyway — but they will go up less under the secret deal. That’s like a British loyalist shouting after Paul Revere: “But there aren’t as many British coming as there might have been.”
Sounds like spin — a nice word for lie.
Don’t believe the lie.
Mark Twain was right: It’s easy to make people believe lies and spin. Especially spin about the benefits of economic development projects.
The Kemper County Lignite Plant is an example. It was an economic development project. It was based on lies and spin about an experimental technology that didn’t work. Millions in taxpayer dollars and billions in shareholder value disappeared. And rates for Mississippi Power’s small customers went up 17%.
Imaginary jobs.
Promoters justify spending for economic development projects on the premise that they will create permanent jobs. Some do. Some don’t. The $6 billion Kemper project created no promised permanent jobs.
Shell Game
So spending on economic development projects is a risky game. I call Entergy’s spending under the secret deal: the Great Mississippi Shell Game.
The Shell Man is the Legislature. He made the pea (the PSC) disappear.
The Barker is Entergy. He touts progress and prosperity. He says Amazon’s huge power needs are urgent. And that Entergy’s rushed spending without PSC oversight is necessary to meet Amazon’s schedule.
He says Entergy’s guaranteed 10% profit on spending for projects before they work and even if they never work is somehow good for small customers.
He says the game goes faster if the PSC can’t blow the whistle on unneeded spending, overspending, no-bid contracts, spending that’s not used and useful and spending that’s not prudent. And Amazon is in a hurry.
He says if you want a prudence test, he has a quickie rubber stamp test: if Entergy reports spending to its accountants and they record it, voilà, it’s deemed prudent.
Entergy’s no-bid contractors and suppliers are shills in the crowd. They whisper: data centers mean more jobs and less brain drain that will transform Mississippi into a miniature Silicon Valley.
The Marks — the suckers — are the small customers who will pay for Entergy’s spending for Amazon that Amazon won’t pay. How much is that? Secret deal. We don’t know.
This is not to question Amazon or the benefits of its huge investments here. Or its negotiators who got the best deal they could get for Amazon. It may be the best deal they ever got.
If the secret deal makes Entergy’s small customers pay for more of Entergy’s spending for plants and infrastructure for Amazon’s data centers than small customers in other states pay for their utilities’ spending for data centers, that’s on our legislators who negotiated the deal for Mississippi. And if Entergy’s out-of-control spending hurts its small customers more, that’s on our legislators too.
Were our legislators misled about the deal?
Data Center Effect:
What’s happened to small customers’ rates in other states with data centers?
Virginia has over 500 data centers — more than any other state. Its residential rates are up 29% since 2020 with the advent of hyperscale data centers. Rates are expected to double by 2030.
Georgia is a similar case. Its residential rates have increased 27%. Same story in other states with lots of data centers.
Why? Because utilities spend more for data centers than data center owners will pay. Small customers pay the difference. Little guys subsidize giant companies. It’s called the data center effect.
Other states have not sidelined their PSCs or allowed their utilities uncontrolled spending. What will happen here? The secret deal sidelines the PSC and gives Entergy a blank check.
Energy burden. Entergy says its rates are among the lowest in the country — implying that it won’t hurt if they go up. Entergy’s rates are low relative to the rest of the country. But they are not low relative to the income of almost half of its residential customers. They are among the poorest in the country. Their energy burden (the % of their household income spent on energy) is the highest in the country. It will get higher. That’s embarrassing.
We should be embarrassed by a deal that makes Mississippi’s poor subsidize big companies.
So what happens next? If you were cheated in a rigged game, you probably wouldn’t play again. If you are a small customer, you don’t have a choice. Entergy has the only electricity game in town in its 45-county monopoly service area.
What to do
So what can you do? What can we do?
There are over a million of us. We have some collective clout. We can demand to know how much our rates are going up. And how much of the increase is due to Entergy’s out-of-control spending for Amazon. We can demand that legislators restore the PSCs’ historic authority to regulate Entergy’s spending.
We can demand that legislators create a watchdog agency to represent us. Other states have consumer advocates for small customers. Mississippi’s small customers need one too.
We might start a preference cascade.
I leave you with a few questions.
Monopoly. How big a deal is sidelining the PSC? It’s a huge deal. No other state has done it. You can’t have a regulated monopoly without regulators. You just have a monopoly — that enriches shareholders at the expense of small customers. Entergy is protected as a regulated monopoly. But wants the profits of an unregulated business. That’s not right. That’s what antitrust laws are for.
2. Don’t Repeat History: How can we avoid more ratepayer disasters ? We can’t if utilities have no regulator and ratepayers have no watchdogs. So we are seeing another ratepayer disaster like Kemper play out in real time.
3. Public Utilities Staff Does the Public Utilities Staff represent ratepayers? No. It was created to advise the PSC. It is supposed to balance the interests of utilities and ratepayers and give the PSC objective advice on utility spending and the effects on small customers. It doesn’t. It favors utilities.
It gets input from utility engineers and professionals, utility lawyers, utility consultants and experts, and utility supporters. It gets no input from customers — they have no engineers, lawyers, experts, or other advocates to speak for them. The system is rigged against small customers.
It’s an injustice to keep small customers at the mercy of the present system.
4. Why is Mississippi last? Are we slow learners or what?. Other states are requiring data centers to reimburse costs utilities incur for them and barring cost-shifting to residential customers. Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Delaware, and other states are doing this. Why don’t we do something now to mitigate damage to small customers from the secret deal?
5. Receipts How do you know what to believe about the secret deal? You can believe the actual language that sidelines the PSC — if you can find it in the 300-page bill. Compare what it says to what you have heard. And decide for yourself.
We have a handout to help with that. It identifies the fine print in subsection 22 of the bill that sideline the PSC, that rubber-stamp prudence, that remove competitive bidding for construction contracts, that remove caps on rate increases, that allow Entergy to put padded costs plus interest in customers rates before projects are complete and before they work and even if they never work.
And that allow Entergy to make a “large customer agreement” with terms that can be set without reference to existing laws and locked in place for the life of the agreement and that are immune to PSC modifications even if costs increase more than provided for in the agreement.
The whole deal is secret — a trade secret. A political secret.
Here are some takeaways:
Takeaways
Entergy is a cost-plus-10% monopoly. It’s unlike businesses that aren’t monopolies. Those businesses want their costs to be low so that can make a profit. Entergy wants costs to be high so it can make a profit. The higher its costs, the more it makes and the greater its market value for shareholders.
Entergy’s costs for big economic development projects are higher than costs for small customers’ projects. So it promotes big economic development projects. And gives lip service to small customers. Sec 22(2) of Senate Bill 2001 says that the Amazon project is more important than regulating Entergy in behalf of customers.
Entergy’s profits flow through to its Entergy Corp parent. Its market value has increased over 50% in the last 18 months on $33 billion of planned spending by its subs for data center projects over the next 5 years.
Small customers rely on the PSC to regulate Entergy’s spending. And to see that it provides affordable, reliable electricity for all customers. Senate Bill 2001 removes the PSC’s authority to do that.
Entergy Mississippi and its political allies see the PSC as a pest. They squashed it.
It looks like they see small customers as acceptable collateral damage in Mississippi’s Brave New Data Center World. They may squash them too.
Just saying…
