Regulators in Louisiana paved the way Wednesday for a Meta artificial intelligence facility to be built in the state. 

The Public Service Commission voted 4-1 in favor of the plan proposed by Louisiana’s largest energy provider, Entergy. The vote represented a key step for Meta’s $10 billion facility to continue. 

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The facility is set to be built on former farmland the size of 70 football fields, but Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously said he would expand it to rival the footprint of Manhattan.

Commissioner Foster Campbell, who represents the district where the data center will be built, said he is in “for this project 1,000%.” 

Louisiana lawmakers, including Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA), have welcomed the project, but the project has drawn criticism due to its large energy needs.

Much of the debate has been fixated on whether average electricity ratepayers and businesses statewide will end up subsidizing some of the costs associated with Entergy’s power plan. The company has said there are measures to prevent this, including building three natural gas power plants to support the facility, and has argued that the facility will benefit everyone.

Estimates suggest, however, that the AI center will need roughly three times the amount of electricity that the city of New Orleans uses in a year, and that it will increase Entergy’s electric needs in the state by about 30%.

Commissioner Davante Lewis, the sole no vote, said the agreement still has key questions unanswered.

“And the truth is there’s just a lot of things that I cannot verify at this moment, so when evaluating all the costs, the benefits, positives and negatives, certainties and uncertainties of this deal, I am still left struggling with some fundamental questions,” Lewis said.

Louisiana is already one of the most industrialized states in the country. It has 476 major air pollution sources, including petroleum, chemicals, plastics, and sugar facilities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The state is home to “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile stretch of communities along the banks of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. These communities are surrounded by around 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations, and residents here face an elevated risk of serious health problems.

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Ashley Settle, a spokesperson for Meta, said Louisiana was chosen for the company’s largest data center because of the state’s “excellent access to infrastructure, a strong workforce and a reliable grid.”

Meta agreed to provide 1500 megawatts of renewable energy to the grid as part of the deal. That commitment, however, is not legally binding.