U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell is backing legislation that would temporarily halt the construction and expansion of large artificial intelligence data centers until Congress puts federal safeguards in place.
Sewell has co-sponsored the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, which would pause new large-scale data center projects while national standards are written.
She said the rapid growth of AI data centers has raised concerns about their impact on water, energy, the environment and local communities, including those in Alabama’s 7th Congressional District, which she represents.
“Make no mistake, I am not anti-technology. I am not anti-innovation. But it’s clear that these projects are being built faster than we can establish the safeguards our communities deserve. The bill simply says let’s put common sense guardrails in place before this expansion continues,” Sewell said. “I truly believe that America can lead the world in innovation and compete for the industries of the future. We can do that while also protecting our greatest resource: our people.”
Sewell said the legislation is not intended to permanently stop AI development but to give Congress time to create national standards before more large data centers are built.
The debate is active in the Black Belt. In Hale County, talk of a proposed data center development in the Gallion area drew residents to a public forum July 30. A site for the proposed development has not yet been confirmed in public records.
The proposal has surfaced amid a wave of energy investment across the region that this newspaper has documented in recent weeks: the roughly $221 million EG Saturn solar farm near Newbern, the 250-megawatt Channel Cat solar and battery project planned outside Greensboro, and Alabama Power’s planned 500-kilovolt transmission project anchored at Lock Five, where the company paid $14 million in January for more than 1,300 acres.
Regional grid planning documents put the new line in service by 2030, and land purchases and easements tied to the buildout will stretch across Perry, Hale, Marengo and Jefferson counties.
Whether data center demand figures in that buildout is a question our reporting continues to examine.
