"At first, the renderings looked like progress for the majority-Black town: glass-and-concrete buildings promising jobs, innovation, and a future rooted in Big Tech. But the fine print told a different story: a complex that would level 700 acres of forest, swallow nearly 2 million gallons of water a day, and draw enough electricity to power a city the size of Seattle. What officials pitched as transformation began to feel, to Simelton, like extraction."
"Behind closed doors, city leaders had inked nondisclosure agreements tied to the nearly $15 billion plan. Then came a zoning change that allows industrial facilities to now be built on farmland, stripping away oversight and clearing the path for potentially even more sprawling data centers to be built in the city with little public input. Now, residents are asking what "progress" means when the future demands so much from those who already have so little."
A tech company proposed a nearly $15 billion data-center complex near Bessemer, Alabama, that would clear about 700 acres of pine forest, consume nearly 2 million gallons of water daily, and draw electricity comparable to a city the size of Seattle. City leaders signed nondisclosure agreements and changed zoning to allow industrial facilities on farmland, reducing oversight and public input. Residents and local NAACP leaders say the proposal feels like extraction rather than equitable investment. Data center construction nationwide exceeds 3,000 facilities with about 1,000 more planned, and the American South is experiencing the largest local environmental and social impacts.
Read at Truthout
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