requested. Ten times the state review threshold.
Source: Inside Climate NewsCommission special called meeting
10:00 a.m.
Charles Smith Annex, 205 E Tuskeena Street, Hayneville
Commission special called meeting
The county has not said what this meeting will decide.
The Southern Environmental Law Center says this meeting moves from the courthouse to the Annex on Tuskeena Street. We have not seen the county’s posted notice. Sources: the October 13 livestream, the draft agreements and SELC’s October 16 note to reporters, linked on the meetings page.
Lowndes County, Alabama
This is our home.
Not their substation.
A Houston company wants a hyperscale data center on farmland along Highway 80. The people who live here still don’t have the whole story. There are five things you can do about that this week.
Watch the October 9 meeting highlights
The room said no.
Watch Protect Lowndes County's edited highlights of the October 9, 2026 commission meeting on Project Red Clay. Hear the presentations and residents' questions in their own words.
A new petition, August 2026
Four demands.
All of them transparency.
Our new petition calls on the Lowndes County Commission to open the record on Project Red Clay. On October 13 it approved the tax break without doing so. It is not the Change.org petition from the spring: even if you signed that one, this one still needs your name. Read it in full, then put your name on it.
- Comply with the records request
- Name every entity, user, and tenant
- Disclose the water, energy, and economic data
- Put every document on a county-run dashboard
This land is not disposable.
Transparency isn’t a courtesy the commission extends to the public. It’s the law.
Beside the site
The people who would live next to it.
It’s home. It’s the only home I’ve ever known. I’ve never lived anywhere else.
They’re asking us to live with long-term consequences, but only projected benefits.
We’re not going to give up. We’re not going to bow down. Not at all.
On social
What we're putting out.
0:50 Unwelcome
0:34 Abstain, Then Yes
0:50 The Referee Voted
1:21 The Bill
Latest
What changed, most recently.
Signal reports 3-2 approval of Red Clay agreements
The Lowndes Signal reports that Robert Harris, Fletcher Hayes and Charlie King Jr. voted to authorize the Red Clay development and tax-abatement agreements. Dickson Farrior and Joseph Barganier opposed the motion. The signed agreements have not been independently reviewed by PLC.
Read at The Lowndes Signal →Pintlala describes a nonbinding water agreement and a proposed new well
The Lowndes Signal reports that Pintlala president Wayne Hatcher described a nonbinding memorandum calling for Cloverleaf to fund a new well. Hatcher said it would increase capacity for existing customers. The memorandum and engineering study have not been independently reviewed by PLC.
Read at The Lowndes Signal →Commission tables proposed changes to evening meetings
The Lowndes Signal reports that commissioners unanimously tabled proposed September and October meeting changes. The report lists September 28 at 6 p.m. in the Lowndes County Courtroom. The county's standing page still lists the Annex, so confirm the venue before attending.
Read at The Lowndes Signal →
Five things you can do this week
In order. Each one counts.
- 1
Sign the new petition
The fastest of the five, and new as of August 2026. Our petition puts four demands to the Lowndes County Commission, all of them about transparency: comply with the July 27 records request, name every entity and tenant, disclose the water and energy data, and put every document on a county-run dashboard. It is not the Change.org petition that circulated in the spring, so even if you signed that one, this one needs your name too.
Read and sign the new petition - 2
Add your name
Membership is a public count of neighbors who want the whole truth about Project Red Clay. It costs nothing, commits you to nothing but staying informed, and it grows the count the other actions stand on.
Become a Member - 3
Be in the room on October 26, 2026
Last Commission meeting before the transition, 6:00 p.m. Commission meetings are where the county's part of this project is decided in public, and where commissioners answer questions on the record. The Commission also meets on the second Monday of each month, but at 10 a.m.
See meeting dates - 4
Watch the docket that writes the rules
On July 8, 2026 the Alabama PSC opened Docket 33709 to decide how Alabama Power’s large-load data-center contracts get reviewed. Both public windows have now closed, on August 6 and August 21, and what went in is public and worth reading: Alabama Power asked that contracts stay redacted to everyone but Commission staff and the Attorney General, and the Attorney General argued the Commission must vote on each contract rather than let staff deem it approved. Eight replies landed in the final round, from the Southern Environmental Law Center, Alabama Power, Energy Alabama, the Alabama Industrial Energy Consumers, Manifest Energy, a state senator and two residents. The docket is still open and the Commission has not ruled. Two things follow. Alabama Power’s own consent says a contract filed before October 1, 2026 is judged under the current rules whatever the Commission decides. And this project’s own contract, if it is ever filed, will not appear in Docket 33709 at all: individual contracts get their own "D-" numbered dockets, and nobody finds those unless they know to look.
Read what was filed in Docket 33709 - 5
Submit a tip
A document, a name, a date, a thing you saw or heard. Every contact field is optional, and we verify before we publish anything.
Submit a tip
This is who we are
The people along the road.
Farmers, church congregations, retirees, young families, business owners. We are not against growth. We are for being told the whole truth about what moves in next door before anyone votes on it. On October 13 the Commission voted anyway.
Say these numbers out loud
The facts fit on a note card.
on the state land-disturbance permit, well above the ~800 in the public site plan.
Source: Alabama Department of Environmental Managementof data buildings six miles from Montgomery.
Source: Inside Climate Newsfrom the Pintlala system, by the developer’s own account. Peak demand and wastewater are still unstated.
Source: WSFA 12Five months of asking. The company says no agreement is final.
Source: Southern Environmental Law Center and Natural Resources Defense Councilto Lowndes residents, by Dr. Regina Moorer’s estimate.
Source: The Lowndes SignalOn October 13 the Commission approved a 20-year abatement that the draft agreement estimates at $2.79 billion in State and County taxes (draft agreement). A tax vote is one gate among several. The water contract, the power contract, and the permits are the others, and none of them is public. The company has told parts of its story more than one way. We keep every version next to its source instead of picking the flattering one.
Bring their own words
Cloverleaf has already said it.
Cloverleaf will not work in communities where this type of development is unwelcome or the development does not match the existing use for the land. That is a decision we will make ten times out of ten.
After speaking to leadership at the Village of Greenleaf and the Town of Wrightstown, Cloverleaf will not be pursuing datacenters.
And to Inside Climate News, the company said final power and water demand had not been determined (Cloverleaf to Inside Climate News). If the demand is not determined, the community’s questions are not late. They are on time.
Carry these into the room
Questions still open.
Who is the tenant?
The end user of the data center remains unnamed.
Which utility serves the parcel?
The 1,500 MW figure is attributed to Alabama Power, but earlier material also names Pioneer Electric. It has not been settled.
What is the real water plan?
Peak versus average gallons per day, makeup water, blowdown, and wastewater volume, composition, and disposal are not disclosed.
How does the power reach the site?
Transmission route, redundancy, upgrades, and cost allocation are undisclosed. A single-source transmission line was flagged as a vulnerability at the June 29 meeting.
What was actually signed?
The public has only the October 5 draft, which estimates $2.79 billion in abated State and County taxes over 20 years. The executed agreements have not been released.
Which parcel, and who is the seller?
The specific parcel and seller are not established in the public record. No recorded option or deed has been located.
How we got here, fast
- August 24, 2026Commission meeting: a zoning resolution, and the developer on the record
- October 5, 2026The agreements go to commissioners, marked confidential
- October 9, 2026Special called meeting: the terms go public
- October 13, 2026Approved 3-2 in about ten minutes, with no public comment
- October 14, 2026The community fund pays Gordonville $134,190
Add your name.
Signed the petition already? This is the next step. It costs nothing, and it makes the rest of the ladder stronger: a bigger public count means a fuller room and a louder docket.
Membership records interest in this effort. It does not create an attorney-client relationship, does not enroll you in any lawsuit, and is not a claim of legal standing. Residency in Lowndes County is not required.