Alabama Power is not
the developer.

Aubrey Carter, Alabama Power’s Manager of Community Relations, is Secretary of the LCEDC, the body recruiting Project Red Clay. Direct utility representation on that board is not incidental: Article 3(d) of the LCEDC’s own Articles of Incorporation states "cooperation with all utilities serving Lowndes County" as a corporate purpose. Six of the LCEDC’s twelve current voting directors hold utility or communications-industry roles.

The LCEDC’s latest Form 990 states that Carter alone received and approved the complete return before it was filed. The return was not provided to the full governing body.

Alabama Power has long placed employees and directors on public boards, and its own ethics guidance confirms that ordinary employment compensation is not improper merely because of public service. Employment alone is not a violation. What the public record does not yet show is whether Alabama Power supplied funds, studies, or support to the project, and whether Carter attended, voted, disclosed, or recused on any vote touching it.¹​²​

The Alabama Power Foundation’s own IRS filings show $338,250 in grants to the Central Alabama Community Foundation (CACF) across tax years 2022 through 2024, plus $2,000 to Hayneville Middle School. Every listed purpose is "GENERAL/OPERATING." None names Cloverleaf, Sandstone, a data center, Lowndes County, or LCEDC.

CACF is the reported contemplated recipient or administrator of a Cloverleaf community-benefits package described as up to $10 million. On August 18, 2026, CACF and Project Red Clay announced the first grants under that package, $125,000 to two Lowndes County organizations, so money has now demonstrably moved. The signed agreement, its fee structure, its disbursement schedule, and confirmation that the full $1 million upfront tranche has been funded are still not public, and these Alabama Power Foundation grants do not establish any of that. The largest single Foundation grant, $300,000, was made in 2022, before Project Red Clay’s public chronology begins.

A named-target search of the same filings for LCEDC, Pioneer Electric, Byard Associates, Cloverleaf, Sandstone, and Project Red Clay found no exact match. That is a limited screen, not proof that no benefit reached the project: it cannot detect a grant routed through an intermediary, filed under a different name, or given in kind.³​⁴​⁵​

A full search of the Alabama Power Company Employees State Political Action Committee’s disclosed expenditures, 1,563 records, found no exact-name payment to any of the five current Lowndes County commissioners. State this plainly: on this record, the developer’s utility is not paying the people who would vote on this project.

The finding is limited to one committee’s disclosed ledger, by exact name. It does not rule out another Alabama Power-connected committee, independent spending, in-kind support, or a name variant. A negative result is still worth publishing when it is this specific and this checkable.⁶​

The 2026 bills that set the ground rules for large-load utility contracts had sponsors and committee leadership who received disclosed Alabama Power PAC money over the years: $20,000 to Sen. Lance Bell, $2,500 to Rep. Neil Rafferty, $6,000 to Rep. Leigh Hulsey, $8,500 to Rep. Ontario Tillman, and $13,500 to Rep. Steve Clouse, whose committee chairmanship covers utilities.

Every one of Sen. Bell’s four contributions predates SB270’s introduction by years. Rep. Clouse’s most recent payment landed after the bill passed but before it became law, chronology only. Rep. Rafferty personally offered the amendment that softened SB270’s cost-recovery language from "will" to "are expected to." No record reviewed shows Alabama Power requested that amendment, or connects any contribution to it.

These are lawful, disclosed records. State the dates and the amounts. The document that would turn timing into something more, a request, a draft, a communication, has not been found.⁷​

Project Red Clay’s own electric-service contract, whichever utility ultimately signs it, has not been filed with the Public Service Commission. But a comparable Alabama Power large-load contract has: for a Birmingham-area data center in a different county, filed in a different docket. The public version withholds the contract’s term, capacity, price, required security, and minimum-bill terms.

Alabama Power says the contract recovers all incremental costs and includes terms meant to prevent costs shifting to other ratepayers. That may be true. It is also not something a ratepayer can check against a document with the price removed.

Alabama Power’s own consent filing in Docket 33709 states that any large-load contract filed before October 1, 2026, when the state’s new cost-recovery review law takes effect, is evaluated under the current process and exempt from whatever rules the Commission adopts afterward. Nothing in the public record establishes whether Project Red Clay’s own contract has or has not been filed before that date.⁸​⁹​¹⁰​¹¹​