Data centers can require enormous amounts of electricity. Somebody pays for the infrastructure needed to serve them. The question is who.
SB270 passed the Senate 30–0 on March 12 and, after a House amendment, the Senate concurred 33–0 on April 8. It takes effect October 1, 2026.
The law says a contract with a large load data center customer is consistent with the public interest where the Commission determines the pricing and terms are expected to “provide for the recovery of the incremental costs of retail electric service to the large load data center customer's premises from the large load data center customer” — and to promote positive benefits to other customers. “Incremental costs” is defined to include generation, transmission, distribution, fuel and taxes the utility would not incur but for that contract.
That is the right principle, and it is already the law. This pledge does not ask for it again. It asks whether you will ever be able to check that it was followed. Nothing in SB270 requires the water use, the load, the grid upgrades, or the contract terms to be public before the Commission approves a deal.
Original passage · roll call 1661398 · 30–0 · verify · Senate concurrence — “Motion to Concur In and Adopt House Amendment” · roll call 1679022 · 33–0 · verify
The pledge
I will support legislation requiring that, before the Public Service Commission approves a covered large-load agreement, each of the following is established publicly and on the record.
Sign this pledge
Any 2026 Alabama candidate, either party. Verified before publication.
Projected water withdrawal and consumption disclosed, with a finding that it will not impair local supply.
Projected electrical load disclosed, along with the grid upgrades required to serve it.
SB270 already requires that incremental costs be recovered from the data center. This asks for the arithmetic: the cost allocation shown on the record before approval, so the finding can be checked rather than taken on faith.
Special-rate contract terms made public before approval — not redacted, and not disclosed afterward.
A public hearing in the affected county, and the right for residents who live there to participate in the proceeding.
No elected or appointed official should be asked to sign an NDA in order to learn what is being built in their own community, and negotiations that commit public infrastructure or public money should happen in open meeting.
Alabama already has an Open Meetings Act. This asks that it not be worked around by moving the substance of a public decision into a private room under a private contract.
Alabama has the third-highest average monthly residential electricity bills in the country. And the statewide average understates it for most of us.
TVA serves north Alabama at markedly lower rates, which pulls the state average down. Alabama Power — which serves most of the state — reports the highest total residential bills of any utility examined, running about 46% above Huntsville Utilities, a TVA distributor with nearly 200,000 residential customers. Rates in every neighboring state are 15 to 25 percent lower than Alabama Power's.
So new industrial load is not being added to an average system. It is being added to the one where households already pay the most.
Utility comparison reporting: Inside Climate News · state ranking from EIA residential bill data.
This isn't a pledge against data centers. It's a pledge against making Alabama families pay for them.
Every condition above is a disclosure, a hearing, or an open meeting. None of them says no to a project. A company that can say how much water and power it needs, can pay for what it uses, and is willing to say so in public, meets all six.
| Name | Office sought | Date | Verified by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spencer Stone | Alabama Senate, District 16 | 2026-09-01 | candidate is the author of this pledge |
| Toni Kornegay Vaughn | Alabama House, District 45 | 2026-09-02 | Signed both pledges by email from tonikvaughn@icloud.com, the address already on file in the campaign contact record from prior independent research — not supplied by the signer. Signature block states the office. |
Listed only where a campaign gave an explicit answer. A name appears here because someone said no — never because they were slow.
| Name | Office | Date asked | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing to report yet. | |||
Contacted, given a stated deadline, and no answer received. This is not a refusal and is not presented as one.
| Name | Office | Date asked | Deadline given |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing to report yet. | |||
Any 2026 candidate for Alabama office may sign, regardless of party. If you agree with the commitment, I want your name here.
Send your name, the office you are seeking, and a line confirming the commitment above. Signatures are verified before publication.
Email to sign