PSC reply comments close
The reply window on Docket 33709 closes. It is the second and final chance for a Lowndes County resident’s letter to go on the state’s record before the Commission acts.
Source: mynbc15Lowndes 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.
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 before any decision is made. 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.
1:02 Not One Heard It From the Company
1:34 Why Here? Linda Lofton Hall Asks the Commission
1:18 Seven Wells and a School Bus
0:57 Seven Neighbors, One Answer
Latest
What changed, most recently.
Cloverleaf published a list of five grant recipients. One of them says it was never offered the money, and has now voted not to take it.
On August 26 the developer said $155,520 of its first $1 million had been awarded, and named the Burkville fire department for $14,234. The department said that had not happened. Two days later the Central Alabama Community Foundation put its own distributed total at $141,286. The two figures are $14,234 apart, which is the Burkville line exactly. We are not going to tell you what that means about anyone’s intent, because the record does not say. We will tell you what the record does say, which is enough.
Read the dispatch →The Lowndes Signal: Burkville volunteers suspend accepting data center funds
Lanell Downs Smith reports that the Burkville Volunteer Fire Department board met on the evening of August 27 and voted unanimously to suspend accepting any donation or grant originating from Cloverleaf until it is clear a data center is going to be built. Board vice president Charles Madaris said the Central Alabama Community Foundation had been prepared to deliver a check for $14,234 and that it was turned down ahead of the vote. The department sits directly across Lowndes County Highway 37 from the proposed project entrance. The article notes that Cloverleaf’s own statement two days earlier had listed Burkville among three fire departments receiving money, which the board says was not the case.
Read at The Lowndes Signal →Letter to the Editor: Data center nightmare disturbs home dream
A letter to the editor by Lester Pitts, who writes that he bought 105 acres directly across from the proposed site and wanted a quiet piece of land to raise his son on. He argues that roughly 250 homes around the site would be affected by the sight, sound and unknown effects of the data center, that only a handful of people would be employed by the final user, and that most of those benefiting would come from outside the county. He asks why elected officials would go against the wishes of so many people in the area. Carried as a record of what a named person published, not as evidence for the assertions inside it. The job and acreage figures in the letter are his own and are not this site’s.
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 before any vote. 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 September 28, 2026
Lowndes County Commission regular meeting, 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. If you cannot make September 28, the next evening meeting is October 26, 2026.
See meeting dates - 4
Tell the Public Service Commission
On July 8, 2026 the Alabama PSC opened Docket 33709, a proceeding reviewing Alabama Power’s large-load data-center contracts. The initial comment window closed August 6, 2026, and what was filed in it is now public and answerable: Alabama Power asked the Commission to keep the contracts redacted to everyone but its staff and the Attorney General, and the Attorney General argued the Commission must actually vote on each contract rather than let staff deem it approved. Reply comments are due on or before August 21, 2026, and that is the last one. A reply is not the same as intervening as a formal party to the case; the Commission’s own docket page has the current filing instructions. A letter from a Lowndes County resident goes on the state’s record, not ours.
File a reply comment by August 21 - 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
Three dates, each closing a different door
The clock.
The filing line Alabama Power named itself
Alabama Power’s own consent filing says a large-load data-center contract filed with the Commission before this date is evaluated under the current rules and exempt from whatever new regulations the Commission adopts. File before this date, and the new law does not apply.
Source: WBRCThe last day for a clean 30-year abatement
HB399 caps any abatement granted on or after January 1, 2027 at 20 years, with a longer term available only through a binding agreement that can claw back the abated state taxes, with interest, if broken. An abatement granted by this date needs neither the cap nor the clawback risk.
Source: Alabama LegislatureThis 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.
Say these numbers out loud
The facts fit on a note card.
requested. Ten times the state review threshold.
Source: Inside Climate Newson 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 SignalThe abatement at issue is 30 years, but as of late July no abatement request had even been filed while the project kept moving (Yellowhammer News). 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 is the abatement worth?
The dollar value of the 30-year abatement has 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 7, 2026The window to contest the land-disturbance permit closes
- August 13, 2026Doug Jones calls for a one-year moratorium
- August 18, 2026First community-benefit grants announced
- August 21, 2026Nvidia takes a minority stake in Cloverleaf Infrastructure
- August 24, 2026Commission meeting: a zoning resolution, and the developer on the record
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.