If you want to know where America is building its next economy, look south.
That was the message last week in Washington, D.C., where the Gulf South Business Roundtable convened utility executives, manufacturers, and federal policymakers for its second annual policy conference. The July 16 gathering had a single throughline: the country's energy and infrastructure needs are exploding, and the Gulf South is positioning itself as the place to meet them. Executive Director Ben Portis put it plainly, calling the region the backbone of America's energy economy and now the engine helping power the nation's future.
The Numbers Behind the Pitch
The headline of the day was a new GSBR white paper, and the figures are hard to ignore. Since January 2024, the Gulf South has drawn between $627 billion and $721 billion in announced industrial investment. The region now accounts for nearly a third of all planned U.S. data center capacity. And it does it on some of the most affordable power in the country, with industrial electricity prices running roughly 29 percent below the national average.
Put those three facts together and you get the whole argument. Reliable, affordable power is a magnet, and it is pulling AI infrastructure and advanced manufacturing into the region at a scale few other places can match.
Low energy costs are not just a line on a utility bill. They are the reason a data center, a factory, or a shipyard picks one state over another, and every one of those decisions is a wave of paychecks.
Who Was in the Room
This was not a think-tank panel talking to itself. The conference put working leaders on stage from Entergy, Southern Company, Boardwalk Pipelines, Mitsubishi Power Americas, Mississippi Power, and Ingalls Shipbuilding, alongside members of Congress. The agenda ran through the practical work of growth: modernizing the grid, reforming permitting so projects can actually get built, revitalizing domestic manufacturing, and training the workforce that AI-driven demand requires.
Mississippi drew a special spotlight as a model for energy-driven economic development, a reminder that the story here is not one big coastal metro but a whole region organizing around the same advantage.
The Proof Is Already on the Ground
Conferences make the case. The projects make it real, and they are landing right now.
In Louisiana, Meta just raised its bet on its Richland Parish data center campus by $40 billion, five times the original commitment, bringing the total to $50 billion and pushing the site's capacity to five gigawatts. That upsizing lifts construction employment to roughly 7,500 workers, about 50 percent more than first projected, and doubles expected permanent positions to around 1,000.
In Alabama, Google announced a $1.5 billion expansion of its Bridgeport campus in Jackson County, one of northeast Alabama's largest investments. It adds to hundreds of full-time jobs already on site, draws more than 1,000 construction workers, and comes bundled with community benefits: a $2 million energy-efficiency fund and $550,000 for local STEM education.
The politics are following the paychecks. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, pushing back on local data center moratoriums in Alabama, argued the projects fund schools, law enforcement, and public services, and told a room of sheriffs the industry is not going anywhere.
The Bottom Line
The Gulf South Business Roundtable came to Washington with a simple story and the data to back it: keep power reliable and affordable, cut the red tape that slows projects, and the investment, the factories, and the jobs will follow. The Meta and Google announcements are what that looks like on the ground. This is growth done right, and the Gulf South is showing the rest of the country how it is done.
Sources: Gulf South Business Roundtable Convenes National Leaders, Meta Expands Richland Parish Data Center, Tuberville Defends Alabama Data Centers, Google Announces $1.5 Billion Jackson County Expansion
