The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
A protest against the proposed Nebius AI site is planned for Saturday, June 27th from 10AM until 12PM at the intersection of Lakeshore Parkway and Sydney Drive in Birmingham, Alabama. With Nebius being an Amsterdam- based Artificial Intelligence cloud company that is intending to operate an AI site in the Oxmoor Corporate Park in Birmingham, Alabama, twenty-four hours, seven days a week. The proposed Nebius AI site is set to require 300 megawatts of electricity. The amount usually needed to power between 100,000 to 385,000 private residences.
While Nebius has stated that they will pay the full and fair cost of the new power infrastructure needed for their megacenter alongside Alabama Power, the city of Birmingham has granted Nebius economic incentives for the project that include a 30-year tax abatement. Residents in the Oxmoor Valley area have expressed dismay over the proposed Nebius AI data center to the point of even filing a class action lawsuit to try and stop the mega data center from being built on roughly 79 acres. Nebius, on the other hand, claims the "world-class AI factory in Birmingham" will "boost the local economy".
Concerns about massive data centers and the consequences of them in the communities they are being constructed in have reached a nationwide phenomenon. As citizens across the USA express concern over the huge quantities of electricity that the AI data centers require, the billions and billions of gallons of water they consume primarily for the evaporating cooling systems the centers use to cool down the extreme heat generated by the data centers continually running massive computer chips, the air pollution produced by the diesel back-up generators that the centers use for emergencies as they emit fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides into the air that can involve severe respiratory and cardiovascular health risks, and the noise produced by the centers that often exceed 90 to 100 decibels from the relentless whir of industrial cooling fans and ventilation systems that run continuously, among other things.
The furor over large scale AI data centers has reached such a large scale among people who are concerned for their communities, that the famed environmental activist of the movie, "Erin Brockovich", is pushing for transparency regarding the surge in large scale data centers. With Erin Brockovich launching a nationwide map that tracks the locations of actual and proposed data centers throughout the USA. While mega data centers are being built all over the world, the USA has by far the most of any country in the world with around 5,400 data centers that are already built. Germany is the country currently coming in second with less than half of that number at 2,269 data centers.
With various mega data centers being proposed throughout Alabama the Beautiful, groups have organized on Facebook such as "Alabama Citizens Against Data Centers". Those groups explain that data centers "that are on a hyperscale level, do not facilitate the Internet." They aren't what people assume are operating Facebook, or what is used to "stream movies on Netflix". What powers those activities are "colocation centers", which are now classified as "tiny" data centers. The large-scale data centers, such as the proposed Nebius AI site in Birmingham, Alabama, are actually manufacturing facilities that "use more power than a steel refinery" to do "some of the most irrelevant work on the planet". With that "irrelevant work" being creating Artificial Intelligence slop videos, Artificial Intelligence slop power point presentations, among other Artificial Intelligence large language model generative infrastructure.
While nowadays protestors are often associated with the radical left, large scale data centers are provoking conservatives to rise up against the hyperscale entities. As groups such as "Humans First" which include a lot of fiscally conservative Tea Party members spring up to organize a nationwide protest against AI data centers on July 18th, 2026. In Alabama, those who wish to attend the protest against the Nebius AI site in Birmingham on Saturday, are encouraged to bring good walking shoes, umbrellas in the even of rain, and some snacks. Attendees at the protest are also encouraged to wear a hat, some sunscreen, and sunglasses. With the organizers of the protest encouraging people to also bring a friend.
Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa attorney, piano instructor, vocalist, poet, reporter, and columnist who writes on politics, current affairs, and the arts.
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