Project Red Clay

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Organized local opposition to Project Red Clay in Lowndes County, Alabama is documented in the public record. Route Fifty (25 Aug 2026): "About 350 people signed the group's petition demanding more transparency from the commission", the group is Protect Lowndes County, which filed an open-records request on 27 July 2026 seeking project documentation and entity lists.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: opposed means documented, organized local opposition is the dominant signal on record.

Route Fifty (25 Aug 2026): "About 350 people signed the group's petition demanding more transparency from the commission", the group is Protect Lowndes County, which filed an open-records request on 27 July 2026 seeking project documentation and entity lists. WSFA (4 June 2026) records a resident telling the developer "We're from Lowndes County...Go home. We don't want you," alongside concerns about water use, power bills, noise and transparency. A separate campaign site (45strong.net) titled "Cloverleaf, withdraw from Lowndes County" appeared in search results but was not reviewed and is not cited. Yellowhammer News notes the site is "half a mile from a field where Selma-to-Montgomery marchers camped in 1965" and that the access road is the Robert "Bob" Mants Jr. Memorial Highway.

Source: Route Fifty

Power and water

Route Fifty: "The facility has requested 1,500 megawatts of energy capacity from Alabama Power." WSFA reports the site sits "underneath a 500 kV electrical line" near the U.S. 80 / Alabama 21 intersection, and that the company was still finalizing power contracts as of 4 June 2026. Cloverleaf states on its project site that it will fund the necessary electric-service upgrades itself.

As of October 2026 the developer's project site says that "Closed-loop cooling continually recycles water" and that after the initial system fill, "day-to-day water use will be comparable to an office building." Separately, a Cloverleaf representative told WSFA: "The most amount of water that we've asked for for consumption is 100,000 gallons of water per day." That is a requested maximum, not metered use, so it is not recorded as reported use. Inside Climate News, republished by WBHM, reports the company requested "up to 100,000 gallons of water per day from the Pintlala Water System, a small rural water utility"; AL.com, republished by GovTech, also names the Pintlala Water System as the supplier.

Public money on the record

Notes on the record

Subsidy: no formal abatement request had been filed as of 24 July 2026, according to Yellowhammer News, which reports that the granting body would be the Lowndes County Commission. Under legislation signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in April 2026, an abatement approved before 1 January 2027 could run up to 30 years; after that date the maximum is 20 years. In October 2026 the Lowndes County Commission voted 3-2 to approve the tax abatements and project agreement; AL.com, republished by GovTech, reports the county granted "more than $1.1 billion in tax abatements", including 50% of the county non-educational property tax and the construction and server equipment refresh sales and use tax. No named tenant: Yellowhammer describes Cloverleaf as a Houston- and Seattle-based speculative developer assembling land for an unnamed future operator; the AI classification is therefore likely, not confirmed. Investment is "$1.5 billion" per WSFA and Route Fifty ("at least $1.5 billion in the development stage"), which is the floor recorded. The developer's own site, which said "Over a $1 billion taxable investment in Lowndes County" in September 2026, states no investment figure as of October 2026. Jobs: as of October 2026 the developer's site says the project will employ "more than 1,000 construction workers" and that full-time roles "will grow from 225 initially to over 300 at full scale"; the recorded figures are those floors (more than 1,000 construction jobs, over 300 full-time jobs at full scale). Other coverage that could not be retrieved as of September 2026 cites 1,000-1,500 construction and over 200 permanent jobs. Footprint: "more than 800 acres in northeast Lowndes County" and "2.88 million square feet" (Yellowhammer). Zoning: reporting notes Cloverleaf could buy and develop here because Lowndes County has no planning or zoning authority. Coordinates are the OSM-confirmed U.S. 80 / AL 21 junction that WSFA names as the site vicinity, not a parcel boundary; the actual footprint is somewhere in northeast Lowndes County near that junction.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

• DC BLOX Montgomery Data Center · Montgomery · DC BLOX14 mi · Proposed · 40 MW
• RSA Dexter Avenue Datacenter · Montgomery · The Retirement Systems of Alabama14 mi · Operating · 2 MW
• Meta Montgomery Data Center · Montgomery · Meta15 mi · Under construction · Supported

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