Bessemer Residents Oppose $14.5 Billion A.I. Data Center Planned in Woodland

Residents and local activists are opposing a proposed $14.5 billion artificial intelligence data center slated for woodland outside Bessemer, Ala., saying the project would replace pristine forest and nearby habitat. The planned facility has been described as the size of 18 Walmarts and would sit on about 675 acres that a developer said could accommodate a roughly 100-acre data-center campus.

Neighbors have raised concerns about loss of wildlife, increased water use and flooding, and the site has drawn support from environmental groups including the Alabama Rivers Alliance and the Southern Environmental Law Center; the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned for endangered-status review of a newly discovered fish in a creek on the land.

Developers told local officials the project would create 990 construction jobs, 330 full-time jobs and roughly $25 million a year for the Bessemer school district, claims that city and county officials said they verified but that some economists and a recent Georgia audit of data centers have disputed.

Republican leaders in Alabama have not broadly championed the Bessemer project: Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt and Governor Kay Ivey did not celebrate the proposal, with Senator Britt saying she hoped the facility would not raise utility costs; President Trump has called data centers “key” to U.S.

Key Topics

Politics, Project Marvel, Tpa Group, Bessemer Alabama, Data Center, Alabama Rivers Alliance