"If You See A Protest Against Data Centers, Join It!" – Ann Eubank at the Eagle Forum of West Shelby County

In a prime example of how the issue of hyperscale data centers flooding the State of Alabama has become a matter of concern for Alabamians of both sides of the political aisle, Ann Eubank, a prominent figure in the Alabama Republican party who is a member of Mom's for Liberty and a member of the Alabama Legislative Watchdogs, spoke at the West Shelby County Action Group of Eagle Forum yesterday. While she has been an advocate for stopping the Common Core curriculum in schools due to seeing it as a purposeful dumbing down of America, her presentation yesterday focused on the environmental and social consequences of massive hyperscale data centers. With hyperscale data centers being planned in the Oxmoor area of Birmingham, the Bessemer area, and now Fairfield, as well; Eubank noted that her house will be within ten miles of three large hyperscale data centers. Eubank stated that as a Christian she could never vote for a Democrat, but she also emphasized that contrary to what U.S. Senator Tuberville has publicly stated, the concerns about data centers are, "not bull crap".

Eubank quoted the opening line to The Declaration of Independence as she began her presentation to the group of forty assembled at the Cornerstone Church in Helena, Alabama. She then stated that contrary to what the data centers and proponents of Artificial Intelligence are saying, data centers are not just a harmless building full of computers. They are energy sappers that have demands beyond what our power grid is currently capable of supporting. Eubank even quoted President Trump who stated that data centers will need, "twice the amount of energy we are producing today." Naturally, most of the cost of building new substations, advanced electrical switchgear, high-capacity transmission lines, and other power necessaries will be passed on to the American taxpayer. With Eubank emphasizing how in our neighboring state of Georgia, people have seen their power bills increase due to hyperscale data centers flooding the Peach State.

Ann Eubank also emphasized to those present at the West Shelby County meeting of Eagle Forum that water is the biggest long-term constraint for data centers. Since Eubank is a talk radio show host on 93.1 FM, she has received reports from people in our neighboring Peach State about how cities in Georgia have seen their water tables be drained due to data centers. In fact, residents in Fayetteville, Georgia noticed how low their water pressure got last year only to find out that a data center drained 30 million gallons of water completely unnoticed as an industrial scale water hookup was installed by the data center without alerting the local county utility.

With Georgia emerging as one of the top national hubs for hyperscale and AI data centers, Eubank emphasized how the water consumption of these data centers is of concern to residents of Alabama. Since Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia obtain their water from some of the same sources. An issue which has led to a decades long water war between the three states regarding the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins. As the water withdrawals from Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River by Atlanta affects the downstream states such as Alabama.

Eubank also noted how in the State of Wyoming, a rare type of bacteria known as Cupriavidus gilardii was discharged into the sewer network of Cheyenne. The rare bacteria was traced to wastewater coming from an AI data center for Meta that is under construction in Cheyenne. With the bacteria entering into Cheyenne's reclaimed water system due to the fill and flush operations that are used to clean and prepare the large cooling systems that are used for data centers before they become operational.

Ann Eubank also noted for those in attendance at the conservative organization's meeting that water is now being traded on the stock market as a commodity. A development that began in 2021 as water joined gold, oil, and other such natural resources on Wall Street. With the stock market allowing farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities to hedge against the availability of water in the future in the State of California. It is not a trifling development as there are concerns that treating water as a tradable commodity on the stock market puts such an important element to human life in the hands of financial institutions and money-hungry investors.

Another consequence of hyperscale data centers that was mentioned at the meeting of the West Shelby County Action Group of Eagle Forum was the noise pollution from such centers. There are reports from ranchers in Texas that cows that are on ranches neighboring large scale data centers are becoming infertile. If the cows do manage to somehow become pregnant and give birth, it is to a stillborn calf. This is thought to be due to the continual noise produced from the centers. As the data centers produce a continuous operational noise that often exceeds 95 decibels. Eubank noted that exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels has been shown to cause damage to one's ears. With studies showing that sounds at 85 decibels or above for longer than 8 hours at a time cause permanent hearing loss.

While the massive size of hyperscale data center complexes gives the appearance of industrial development in an area, Eubank cautioned that a hyperscale data center, "looks like growth, but doesn't behave like growth." For the hyperscale data centers, once they are operational, do not produce much foot traffic nor retail activity. There are actually very few jobs required to run a data center once it is built. With most of the promised jobs from the hyperscale data centers arising only during the construction phase of the centers. And, as one member of the audience pointed out, construction is an industry that relies heavily upon the use of illegal immigrants. With studies showing that illegal immigrants make up between 15% to 23% of the industry's total workforce. Consequently, the alleged jobs provided by the construction of hyperscale data centers throughout Alabama, might not even all go to U.S. Citizens.

Eubank pointed out that, "the data centers want people to pay them to be here." Which is ironic, as they are used to support Artificial Intelligence, which is already impacting people's careers. As an article from the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute states that, "the impact of AI can be seen among recent college graduates, who are finding it harder and harder to get that first job." With the Yale article further posing the question that, "With no entry to the workforce, how will younger people develop the skills and wisdom to lead in the future?" Given that tax incentives and tax abatements are being granted to the hyperscale data centers to colonize Alabama, Eubank further stated that we, the taxpayers, are, "paying for our own free enterprise demise."

Some members of the audience also pointed out during Eubank's presentation the irony of hyperscale data centers being presented as a modern-day space race between the U.S. and China. For most advanced data center chips are manufactured in Taiwan. Most of the semiconductors and graphics processors for such hyperscale data centers are manufactured in both Taiwan and South Korea. With the electrical grid components needed to power the massive data centers such as the large-scale transformers and heavy electrical equipment being heavily imported from China, anyway.

While Alabama's Republican gubernatorial nominee, Tommy Tuberville, has stated that it is important for hyperscale data centers to be constructed in Alabama or else they will go to blue states and China, it was also pointed out at the meeting, that it actually isn't as significant where the data centers are located as one might think. Since companies like Palantir, which maintains an office in Tel Aviv, use all of the data collected from governments and corporations and combines said data into a single, gigantic dataset via their AI algorithms to discover patterns that are otherwise hard to see. With Palantir even being used by Israel to plan its attacks in Lebanon and Gaza and the CEO of Palantir stating that, "Our weapons software is in every combat situation that I'm aware of."

In conclusion, Ann Eubank stated at the West Shelby County Action Group of Eagle Forum's meeting that President Trump has been, "A savior on one end, and a 'What in the heck?!?' on the other." Noting with disappointment his signing of Executive Order 14318 entitled "Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure". An order which aims to speed up the construction of hyperscale data centers by fast-tracking the required environmental and land-use reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. With the order also instructing the Department of Commerce to help speed up loans and grants for the construction of such centers. Nevertheless, Eubank noted that "We The People" can still apply immense pressure on politicians to halt the construction of these hyperscale data centers. With Eubank stating to everyone in attendance that, "If you see a protest against data centers, join it!"

Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa attorney, piano instructor, vocalist, reporter, poet, and columnist who writes on politics, current events, and the arts.