Why Are Plans for This Alabama Data Center So Hush-Hush?

Citing climate crisis, NAACP expresses opposition to massive Bessemer data center

The site of the proposed Bessemer data center is currently a nearly 700-acre wooded plot. Construction would require the clearcutting of more than 100 acres. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News)This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. BESSEMER — Residents living around the site of a proposed 4.5 million-s…

Why Are Plans for This Alabama Data Center So Hush-Hush?

‘UThe general plans for a so-called hyperscale data center set for construction in the majority-Black city of Bessemer, Alabama, are well known. The proposed 4.5 million square-foot facility, with a footprint about the size of 18 Walmart Supercenter stores, will require clearing 700 acres of forest and consume enough electricity annually to power a city the size of Seattle. Ask Mayor Kenneth Gulley, the city attorney, and other city leaders for …