Data centers spark fears of a ‘Digital Cancer Alley’ in Louisiana

A new report warns that Big Tech’s rapid buildout of data centers across the South could usher in a new wave of environmental and economic harms for Black and working-class communities, drawing parallels to Louisiana’s infamous Cancer Alley, the infamous span of petrochemical plants belching toxic smoke.

“Today, Big Tech is following in the footsteps of Big Oil, as they deliberately build data centers in the South, banking on disempowered cities and towns with large Black populations to not have the local power to fight back,” writes grassroots coalition MediaJustice.

There are more than $200 billion planned or ongoing data center projects across Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, and the rest of the South, according to the MediaJustice’s new report, “The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South.”

The buildout of high-tech data centers, framed as “progress” by companies like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, will leave residents with higher utility bills, water scarcity, and increased pollution in the long haul, advocates warn.