Data centers beyond DeKalb: the federal, state and local record

On this page: Washington: faster permits and The states: power bills and sales tax

Is this paid with your tax dollars? Here is how the money moves, so you can weigh it for yourself. The buildings are private money. Your tax dollars come in through state and local tax breaks, and your power bill through the plants and lines built to serve them. In Lowndes County, Alabama, the county commission voted 3 to 2 on Oct. 13, 2026 to give one project more than $1.1 billion in tax breaks over 20 years. Some residents see those breaks as a fair trade for jobs and tax revenue; others see a cost they never agreed to carry. SourceLine takes neither side. We lay out who pays, so the decision stays with you and the people you elect.

DeKalb County's Board of Commissioners paused new data centers in unincorporated DeKalb in 2025. On June 23, 2026 it turned down a proposed set of rules 7 to 0, and on July 7 it extended the pause to March 30, 2027 on a 6 to 1 vote (record, June 23; record, July 7). Residents filled those meetings and kept asking: are we the only ones, and what have other places learned?

DeKalb is not alone. Large data centers are being proposed or built in or near Black communities in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Maryland, Indiana, Missouri and across metro Atlanta. Washington decides how fast they get permits and power. States decide who pays for the plants and lines, and whether data centers pay sales tax. Local boards decide where they go, and whether they come at all. In a few places residents have won written terms that hold a company to its promises.

Residents raise the same concerns everywhere: water, which many data centers use for cooling; power bills for new plants and lines; air, from gas turbines and diesel backup generators near homes, as in Southaven and Bessemer; noise from cooling equipment and generators; tax breaks for buildings that employ relatively few people; and, as Bessemer made plain, whether residents see the facts before the vote.

Washington: faster permits

On July 23, 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure, for projects that add more than 100 megawatts of load or commit at least $500 million. It tells agencies to use existing exemptions from full environmental review, list projects on the federal permitting dashboard with faster schedules, offer federal land, have the Environmental Protection Agency find brownfield and Superfund sites for reuse, and set up federal loans, grants and tax incentives. It revoked the January 2025 order on AI infrastructure on federal sites (record, Federal Register). The next day the Department of Energy named four of its sites for private data centers and power plants: Idaho National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, the Paducah site in Kentucky and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina (record, Department of Energy).

In October 2025 the Energy Department directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees the interstate grid, to write a rule on large loads (docket RM26-4). On June 18, 2026 it instead issued six orders, one to each regional grid operator: show that your rules for connecting loads of 50 megawatts or more are fair, or change them (record, FERC fact sheet). The orders call for studies finished in 60 to 90 days and cost agreements backed by credit, so a data center that never arrives leaves its costs with the company that asked. Keeping costs off household bills stays with the states (reporting, White & Case).

The Environmental Protection Agency has loosened two rules on turbines and generators. A final rule of Jan. 15, 2026 lets "temporary combustion turbines" run up to 24 months at one location (record, Federal Register), which lawyers for developers read as relief from parts of the usual permitting (reporting, Greenberg Traurig). A rule proposed May 13, 2026 would let developers build foundations and utility connections before they have an air permit (record, Federal Register). On Oct. 20, 2026 a judge refused the federal government's request to end the NAACP's Southaven lawsuit, described below (reporting, Yahoo Finance).

The states: power bills and sales tax

Thirty six states give data centers a break on sales and use tax, and only eleven name the companies that get it (reporting, Good Jobs First, November 2025). The break cost Texas about $1 billion in fiscal 2025, and Good Jobs First puts Virginia's near $1 billion a year. Of the 13 states we reviewed, six (Georgia, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri and Oregon) now hold the largest new power customers to contracts of up to 15 years, most with minimum bills of 60 to 85 percent of the power reserved, used or not, so households do not pay for plants built for a data center that leaves. Minnesota adds a yearly fee of $2 million to $5 million. In Alabama we found no utility rule. See every state's decision.

On this page: Memphis and Southaven; Alabama: a confidentiality agreement and a tax break; and Prince George's County: a two year pause

Memphis and Southaven

Shelby County is 52 percent Black (SourceLine census data). In July 2025 the county Health Department gave xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, an air permit for 15 permanent gas turbines at its Colossus data center in South Memphis, with yearly emission caps recorded monthly (reporting, Action News 5). Word In Black reports that all of Musk's Memphis area data centers sit in predominantly Black neighborhoods, Colossus near Boxtown among them (reporting, Word In Black). In April 2026 the NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, sued xAI in federal court in Mississippi over 27 gas turbines running in Southaven without an air permit, as temporary units the state Department of Environmental Quality had allowed, and appealed the state's permits for 41 permanent turbines there (reporting, Mississippi Today; NAACP announcement).

In August 2025 the Memphis City Council voted to send 25 percent of the property tax revenue from the xAI sites, $3.3 million, back to the surrounding communities (record, the ordinance; reporting on final passage, FOX13). An advisory board chaired by KeShaun Pearson, founder of Memphis Community Against Pollution, surveyed residents within five miles of the two Colossus sites and in June 2026 sent eleven priorities, from weatherization and health care to air monitoring and a public environmental dashboard. The council and the mayor decide the split (reporting, Action News 5). On Oct. 20 the council failed, 6 to 6, to pass a longer moratorium, then passed 7 to 5 a substitute from Council members Jeff Warren and Rhonda Logan (reporting, WSMV; Word In Black; Action News 5). The city's record says Ordinance 5986 pauses new data center applications and approvals for up to 135 days, orders a siting study within 45 days and proposed rules within 90, and lets existing data centers keep running (record, City of Memphis). On Oct. 26 the Shelby County Commission put off to Nov. 18 Commissioner Henri E. Brooks's 12 month moratorium, which passed first reading Oct. 13 by 5 to 4, and Commissioner Amber Huett-Garcia's rules requiring data centers to report water, power and infrastructure use (reporting, Memphis Flyer, Oct. 13 and Oct. 26). The Tri-State Defender, Memphis's Black-owned newspaper, reported each step: the city vote (Oct. 22), a county committee advancing the rules (Oct. 23), and the county vote postponed (Oct. 28).

Before the Nov. 3 election the NAACP opened Climate on Your Ballot, an online map where a voter enters an address to see nearby data centers and how candidates on that ballot answered an NAACP questionnaire on data centers, sent in 17 states; candidates could sign on to the NAACP's answers or write their own. It counts more than 38,000 people within two miles of the data centers near Boxtown, 73 percent of them Black (reporting, Seattle Medium and Word In Black, Oct. 29; New York Amsterdam News).

Alabama: a confidentiality agreement and a tax break

Bessemer is a majority Black city outside Birmingham (reporting, Word In Black). On Nov. 18, 2025 its city council voted 5 to 2 to rezone nearly 700 acres for Project Marvel, a $14.5 billion campus of 18 buildings that a document from the developer's law firm put at about 1,200 megawatts at full capacity. No user has been named, and Alabama law lets data centers that qualify receive tax abatements for up to 30 years (reporting, Inside Climate News). In January the developer said it would ask for about 900 more acres (reporting, Inside Climate News). In June 2026 a Jefferson County judge dismissed the neighbors' suit over the rezoning with prejudice, on a joint request from both sides, with no reason in the file (reporting, WBRC). Then came a document. After environmental groups threatened to sue for it, the city released the confidentiality agreement its mayor, city attorney and chief of staff signed in February 2025. It barred the city from releasing site plans and studies, and required officials to destroy confidential project information, their own notes included, when the developer asked (reporting, WBHM).

Lowndes County, on the Selma to Montgomery trail, is 74 percent Black (SourceLine census data). On Oct. 13, 2026 its county commission voted 3 to 2, without public comment, to give Cloverleaf Infrastructure's Project Red Clay, a planned 1,500 megawatt data center, 20 years of tax breaks worth more than $1.1 billion: half the county's property tax outside schools, sales tax on construction and servers, and state taxes. Chairman Charlie King, Fletcher Hayes and Robert Harris voted yes; Dickson Farrior and Joseph Barganier voted no. Backers project $124 million a year in local taxes and 225 jobs; the NAACP objected to a vote taken without notice (reporting, Seattle Medium and Word In Black, Oct. 29; GovTech; Alabama Political Reporter).

Prince George's County: a two year pause

Prince George's County is 59 percent Black (SourceLine census data). In September 2025 the County Council adopted CR-98-2025, a 180 day pause on data center permits and subdivision plans, and County Executive Aisha Braveboy created a Qualified Data Centers Task Force (reporting, Maryland Association of Counties). A plan for a data center campus at the old Landover Mall had started the review; the task force recommended community input in permitting, community benefit agreements and zoning that keeps these buildings away from neighborhoods (reporting, Inside Climate News via Spotlight PA). CR-066-2026 then paused subdivision plans and building and grading permits for qualified data centers for two years while the council writes zoning, siting and construction rules (record, council agenda item). It passed July 7, 2026, able to end early if comprehensive legislation passes; the county chamber of commerce had argued for six months (reporting, NBC Washington). In September a council committee unanimously advanced a bill restoring detailed site plan review: a public hearing and council vote on each data center (reporting, The Diamondback).

On this page: Indianapolis: a tax break on the table; St. Louis: terms in the permit; Metro Atlanta; Who actually decides; Where communities won terms; and What this means for DeKalb

Indianapolis: a tax break on the table

In Martindale Brightwood, on the near east side of Indianapolis, the Metropolitan Development Commission approved a rezoning for a Metrobloks data center in April 2026, and the City-County Council had the final say (reporting, Indiana Public Media). Residents pointed to soil already contaminated with lead, noise, water, power and the neighborhood's own quality of life plan, and sued on May 8, 2026 (reporting, Mirror Indy). The company is asking for a $56 million incentive package and has committed at least $2.5 million to affordable housing and infrastructure, which it says could reach $20 million depending on incentives; the commission takes up the tax break Nov. 18 (reporting, Mirror Indy).

St. Louis: terms in the permit

St. Louis is 42 percent Black (SourceLine census data). On April 21, 2026 the Board of Public Service unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the Armory Innovation Data Center in Midtown, a 120 megawatt data center inside a $3 billion redevelopment, as The St. Louis American reported that day (reporting, The St. Louis American). The conditions read like what residents elsewhere have asked for: closed loop cooling with air cooled chillers, and any new water rate set for large users; at least half its power from renewable sources within five years; no on site generators as a regular power source, with battery backup and generator tests limited to weekday hours and never on bad air days; about $15 million for greenways, digital inclusion and environmental justice work; no local tax abatement; $15,000 to the city for every $100,000 that tax revenue falls short of projections by 2029; and $2,000 for each promised job that does not exist. The city can revoke the occupancy permit if the conditions are not met (record, City of St. Louis). In June the St. Louis NAACP released a community benefit framework asking for disclosure of energy and water use before approval, independent experts for neighborhoods and monitoring of every commitment (reporting, The St. Louis American). Now the terms are being tested. Opponents led by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment have sued, saying the permit was granted illegally, and in September the developer sued the city's Board of Adjustment to strike two conditions: 2.4 megawatts of renewable energy on the site, and Board of Aldermen approval of the community benefits agreement (reporting, St. Louis Public Radio).

Metro Atlanta

Clayton County, 69 percent Black, adopted a 120 day moratorium on Sept. 3, 2025 (reporting, GPB). Rockdale County, 58 percent Black, held a town hall on May 12, 2026 (record, county presentation) and extended its moratorium through Sept. 8 (reporting, Rockdale Newton Citizen). South Fulton started a six month moratorium on Dec. 9, 2025 and extended it to Sept. 9, 2026 by unanimous vote (record, RES2026-043). In August it adopted permitting requirements and performance standards, and Mayor Carmalitha Gumbs has since said the city is open to data centers that do not harm the community (reporting, Bisnow).

Who actually decides

Read side by side (SourceLine's reading), the records show who decides what. Washington sets the pace of permits, grid connections and air rules. City councils and county commissions decide through zoning where a data center can go, and whether to pause. Planning boards hold hearings and sometimes attach conditions, as in Indianapolis and St. Louis. Health departments and state environmental agencies decide air permits, as in Shelby County and Mississippi. State utility commissions decide who pays for plants and lines, and legislatures write the tax breaks.

In Georgia that is the Public Service Commission, five members elected statewide. Its December 2025 approval of about 10,000 megawatts of new capacity, about 80 percent tied to data centers, came with a rate freeze that ends in 2028; Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson, elected that November, opposed it before taking office on Jan. 1, 2026 (reporting, CBS News Atlanta). The General Assembly adjourned April 3, 2026 without rolling back the sales tax break, though a state report estimated it would cost $2.5 billion in 2026, and without passing a bill to keep data center costs off residential bills (reporting, Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Where communities won terms

Where residents organized early and stayed through the votes, they won terms (SourceLine's reading): in Prince George's, where residents protested the Landover Mall plan, a 180 day pause that became two years; in Memphis, a quarter of the xAI tax revenue for the surrounding neighborhoods, with a board one of their organizers chairs advising on how it is spent; in St. Louis, the strongest terms we found, with dollar penalties now being defended in court; in Georgia, a utility rule meant to keep the cost of serving data centers on the data centers. The NAACP's 2026 community benefits agreement template for data centers gathers the pieces: a yearly cap on water use with priority for drinking water during drought, an energy affordability fund, a local hiring target, an independent community advisory board, public reporting, and penalties, including the return of tax incentives, when a company does not keep its word (NAACP template).

What this means for DeKalb

DeKalb's pause runs to March 30, 2027. A pause is time. It can end in a no as well as a yes, and that choice belongs to the people the board answers to. Other places show what the time can be used for: putting water, power and tax numbers on the public record before a vote, deciding which body attaches conditions, and writing terms with penalties. The next votes elsewhere come Nov. 18, in Shelby County and Indianapolis. SourceLine will keep following DeKalb's issue page and add these places as their records come in.