Alabama needs a Data Center Accountability Summit – now
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Op-ed by Sheila McNeil
Alabama’s data center boom is not something on the horizon. It is here.
That is why I am calling for an urgent, bipartisan Alabama Data Center Accountability Summit bringing together state and local officials and representatives from energy, water, technology, labor, agriculture, business, economic development, consumer advocacy, and communities already confronting these projects.
National security experts have also raised concerns about perceived foreign influence and global competition – particularly from China – in the race to build and control major data center infrastructure.
The summit should be held promptly, conducted publicly, and focused on producing concrete recommendations that lead to a coordinated plan for managing the demands that data centers may place on Alabama’s electricity, water, land, and public infrastructure.
Alabama cannot afford another ceremonial task force operating in isolation or private discussions held after major commitments are made. Decisions are being made now, and the public deserves a seat at the table.
AL.com recently identified at least 24 data center sites across 12 Alabama counties. At least 12 are operating, five are under construction, and seven are planned. Proposed and active investments may exceed $63 billion.
Those projects are not all alike. They range from smaller facilities to hyperscale projects capable of consuming extraordinary amounts of electricity and water. Some have disclosed their projected resource use. Many have not. Each has been considered separately, before different local governments and under different procedures.
Taken together, however, they represent a statewide infrastructure challenge.
A decision made in one county can affect electric generation, transmission capacity, water resources and utility costs far beyond that county’s borders. Yet Alabama continues to approach these projects one at a time, without a comprehensive system for evaluating their cumulative effects.
That is a failure of state leadership.
For too long, Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama’s Republican leadership have celebrated individual announcements without establishing a transparent statewide framework to protect the communities accepting these projects and the ratepayers who may ultimately carry their risks.
Alabama cannot recover the time its leaders wasted, but it can stop wasting more.
Some people are calling for moratoriums on data center development. I understand the frustration behind that position. Communities have watched major proposals advance without adequate information, consistent rules, or meaningful opportunities for public participation.
But a temporary moratorium does not answer the questions Alabama will still face when that year ends. It does not determine who will pay for new electric generation and transmission. It does not protect ratepayers if a proposed project is delayed, abandoned, or rendered obsolete. It does not establish water protection, infrastructure requirements, or a fair public review process.
A moratorium is a pause. It does not answer what Alabama should do next.
A well-designed data center can provide substantial benefits. It can create skilled construction work, expand the local tax base, reuse industrial property and support investments in energy, water, and other public infrastructure.
Google’s Jackson County campus demonstrates that a project can be paired with community investments and protections, including assistance for local families with their energy bills.
Communities may reasonably conclude that those benefits outweigh the risks. They should retain a meaningful voice in making that choice.
But every community should make its decision with reliable information, enforceable commitments and a clear understanding of who bears the costs if the project does not develop as promised.
Technology changes quickly. The power plants, transmission lines and water systems built now to serve a data center may last for decades, while the customer, project or technology may not. Alabama must plan for the possibility that a proposed facility closes, shrinks, or never reaches operation.
Alabama families should not be left paying for infrastructure built for a private project that fails to deliver as promised.
My Alabama Data Center Accountability Plan, or ADCAP, offers a starting point: a framework for addressing those risks without imposing a one-size-fits-all ban. It calls for coordinated regional review, meaningful public participation and enforceable protections so communities and ratepayers are not left carrying the costs of failed or abandoned projects.
The proposed summit would allow people with different interests and expertise to begin that work together. It would not require participants to agree about every data center or every policy. It would require them to acknowledge that Alabama’s current project-by-project improvisation is inadequate for development occurring at this scale and speed.
Data centers are already here. More are coming. Alabama can continue reacting to each proposal after it appears, or it can build a system that captures potential benefits while protecting communities, natural resources, and ratepayers from foreseeable harm.
It is time to bring the necessary voices to the same table, confront the facts and begin building a plan worthy of the decisions Alabama is being asked to make.
Sheila McNeil is the Democratic candidate for Place 2 on the Alabama Public Service Commission.
