Overview:
From Memphis to Alabama's Black Belt, data centers have become contentious local issues. The NAACP's new dashboard gives voters a way to examine proposed projects and see which candidates have answered questions about their environmental impact.
With Election Day just a week away, the NAACP launched a new electoral tracker dashboard focused on what could be a defining local issue for Black voters in the midterm elections: data centers.
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The dashboard tracks 1,728 data centers already online and another 1,042 that are either proposed, approved or under construction across the country. It also highlights how close these typically massive projects are to Black communities, particularly in the South.
The organization also sent a questionnaire about data centers and other environmental issues to candidates in 17 different states. Voters can find answers on their local ballots by plugging their address into the dashboard.
Abre’ Conner, director of the NAACP’s Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, said in a press release that voters “deserve to know where candidates stand on the climate and environmental issues shaping their communities.”
Climate on Your Ballot gives voters the information they need to hold candidates accountable and demand action on these issues.
Abre’ Conner, NAACP’ Center for Environmental and Climate Justice
“From data center development to clean energy laws, these decisions have real consequences for our health and our neighborhoods,” she said. “Climate on Your Ballot gives voters the information they need to hold candidates accountable and demand action on these issues.”
The dashboard lets users see not only which data center projects are nearby, but also the stances of candidates running for local office on AI infrastructure development and other environmental issues.
For example, if a user enters an address in Boxtown — the South Memphis neighborhood founded in 1863 by freedmen that’s at the heart of a local data center controversy — the dashboard shows Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 on a map. Elon Musk developed both facilities and wants permission from the city government to build a third.
The tracker shows how many people live near data centers and how many are Black. In Boxtown, more than 38,000 people live within two miles of nearby data centers, and 73% are Black; zoom out to 5 miles, and the total population rises to more than 163,000 people, with 73% Black.
Three candidates on the local Boxtown ballot have answered the NAACP’s questionnaire on data centers: Robert Jones, an independent candidate for Senate; Misam Abidi, an independent candidate for Governor; and Robert Vick, another independent running for Governor. Though state Rep. Justin Pearson, the Democrat’s candidate for Congress, has been one of the most visible faces in the Memphis data center fight, he has yet to answer the questionnaire.
In a kind of multiple-choice response, candidates can endorse pre-written NAACP answers or provide their own.
On the question of air quality and emissions, Abidi said, in part, “Approval should require enforceable emissions limits, public reporting, and monitoring matched to the risks. Equipment approved for emergency backup should not quietly become a routine power source without further review.”
Voters concerned about data centers can find similar information on projects in and around their communities and see questionnaire responses from candidates running in local and statewide races.
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The map function effectively shows the proximity of data center projects, some of which are far less high-profile than others. An address in Bessemer, Ala., for example, shows not only the proposed Project Marvel facility that has upended local government in the majority-Black city, but also another proposed 300-megawatt facility between Bessemer and Birmingham — and the up-and-running DC Blox data center in Birmingham.
The dashboard will continue to be updated with questionnaire answers as more candidates respond. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
