There seems to be a fight over datacenters in nearly every city in the US right now. And amid the extreme polarization of today’s politics, the opposition tends to be bipartisan.

“I would say it’s kind of the far left and the far right ran into each other and had a hug,” said Frank Scott Jr, mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas. “But they come at it from different perspectives.”

Two hyperscale datacenter proposals emerged in January in and near Little Rock. Google plans to develop a 1.43m-sq-ft, $1bn datacenter at the Port of Little Rock, on a 384-acre site. The other, by Avaio, is a $6bn project 10 miles south, in a rural patch of marshy forest in unincorporated Pulaski county.

In most places, if enough people show up to city council meetings or county commission hearings, public pressure can kill a project. But Arkansas is uniquely restrained.

Three years ago, lawmakers in Arkansas’ Republican-dominated legislature passed legislation that blocked local ordinances from banning datacenters.

The language in the law is almost an accident, according to state representative David Whitaker, a Democrat from Washington county, Arkansas. “It had nothing to do with datacenters, per se,” he said. “It came in with a big concern of crypto mining in some of our rural areas… They’d buy shipping containers and drop them off in the middle of the night out in a soybean field.”

The term “datacenters” was tacked on in the definitions during the sausage-making process of legislation, somehow. “Nobody was talking about these datacenters in 2023,” said Whitaker.

But Scott, who said he was at the Arkansas state capitol while the bill was being argued, suggested its inclusion “seems very intentional to those involved” now. While state law prohibits communities from outright bans on datacenters, city or county governments have broad authority to regulate them.

‘They’re going to use up all the water’

The mayor of Little Rock – up for re-election this year – has tried to push back against the proposed projects.

“I think it has a lot to do with water and electricity rates,” Scott said. “Water is, as we know, a security issue. It’s a way of life issue. Then the electricity rates with gas …

“People are very concerned about the dollars, and that this gives not only that, they feel like the datacenters will not pay their fair share. They’re going to use up all the water. They’re going to increase all the electricity, and it’s going to hit their back pocket like gas is right now.”

Arkansas’s nickname is the Natural state, he noted. “So very many people are concerned about our natural resources.”

The datacenter business found in Little Rock the same attributes that crypto miners found to be attractive in Arkansas: cheap land with cheap power. Arkansas industrial electricity customers pay between 5 and 7 cents per kWh, well below the national average of 8.71 cents per kWh, according to the latest figures from the US Energy Information Administration.

Such is the story across the south and midwest. An analysis of planned datacenter projects by Pew Research found three-quarters of all planned datacenters will be built in these two regions, with the south alone accounting for nearly half of them.

Little Rock, Arkansas’s capital city, is second only to Nashville in GDP growth, according to Scott, who has pitched it as a refuge from the crushing cost-of-living increases that are driving people from the coasts. Little Rock is a healthcare and logistics hub with strong job growth. Parts of the city are gentrifying, including the neighborhood around its renowned Central high school.

The Avaio datacenter project

There are back yards that might want a new datacenter in Arkansas. Those back yards are not in Little Rock, Scott said.

“You have West Memphis, which is a smaller city; they love it,” Scott said, referring to a project of Elon Musk’s xAI in Arkansas, just across the border from Tennessee. “Google’s giving $25m for workforce development and impact funds, and so it gives a great example. But I’ve also seen in the news where there are other small cities, the size of West Memphis, who don’t want it and are just as mad as folks here in Little Rock.”

Google was approached for comment.

People in Wrightsville, 10 miles south of Little Rock where the Avaio datacenter project is slated, are hopping mad, too. Unlike the city, the county has reacted less vigorously.

The rural street connecting Wrightsville to I-530 and Little Rock is getting repaved, right around the spot where Avaio’s building will emerge. The ageing tract houses along the street are in varying states of repair, with trucks parked in front with mud on the bumpers from actual labor.

Avaio, which did not return a request for comment, projects that its 30-acre initial buildout would use 150MW of power – about the power consumption of 100,000 homes. The second phase would require up to a gigawatt of power, and consume about 4m gallons of water daily.

The neighbors are preparing as best they can for what’s coming. Activists have been passing out handbills calling on the neighborhood to attend the quorum court, the Arkansas equivalent of a county commission, to register objections. A recent hearing packed the chamber. But few people in the area – mostly Black or immigrants, mostly working class, often elderly – have the energy, or will, for sustained protest, the site’s neighbors say.

“Our government, who we choose to have represent us, can’t say no, regardless, even though we would want them to say no,” said Gale Jefferson, who lives near the proposed site. Her husband grew up in Wrightsville. They live on property that has been in their family for generations.

“A lot of this land is heir property. Their parents have died,” said Jefferson. “They don’t want to come back, but they don’t want to let go of the property. So there’s not a lot of people, per se.”

The community needs jobs, she said, gesturing toward the yellow sign on the boarded-up Dollar General at the end of the street, which wears a burial shroud of black latex. Jefferson fears the datacenter will probably employ no one from Wrightsville at all.

‘This is very real redlining’

Avaio projected that its datacenter would produce 70 permanent jobs on the first phase of its buildout, said Wendell Griffen, a retired Arkansas circuit judge and court of appeals justice in Pulaski county, who won the Democratic primary in March to replace the county’s chief executive, Barry Hyde.

The site relies on a volunteer fire department that lacks specialized equipment, personnel, or commercially available fire-suppression foam needed to handle potential large-scale lithium-ion battery or electrical fires, Griffen said.

“This is very real redlining,” Griffen said. “It is appropriating rural, Black-owned land and converting it for industrial purposes, and it’s being done by people who have no historical or cultural tie to the land. These are not people who are local, developing their land for industrial use.

“These are people who are literally coming in, grabbing the land, industrializing it, but not to produce anything or give jobs in large measures to the people who are local inhabitants.”

Activists have been outraged by the revelation that the Pulaski county justice of the peace, Dianne Curry, had taken cues from an executive at energy firm Entergy Arkansas when drafting an exemption for Avaio from a proposed one-year development moratorium, which would have paused datacenter development in the county while leaders formulated better local regulations.

The Pulaski county quorum court last month rejected the proposed moratorium – and Avaio’s exemption – sending local lawmakers back to the table to find a way to constrain the development without running afoul of Arkansas state law against an outright ban.

Jefferson noted that her family’s property has no sewer line. Her neighbors are sensitive to electricity price changes, she said; most people run window cooling units in the summer because the houses don’t carry central air conditioning. She said she was concerned that her modest property could lose value.

But it’s what they’ve got. She’s trying to talk her husband into selling, she said.

‘A blue city leader in the midst of the red state’

In contrast to the county’s management of the datacenter issue, Little Rock’s municipal government passed an ordinance in June that set rigorous limits on how loud a hyperscale datacenter could be, how much heat it could generate, and how much water it could use, as well as sewerage and setbacks. It laid out financial penalties for non-compliance, and banned hyperscale datacenters from residential neighborhoods, essentially restricting any to the Little Rock Port Authority district.

Nonetheless, some residents called on the city to enact a broad moratorium on datacenters instead, to take more time to draft ordinances.

“To be fair, there are many people who are against the ordinance, saying they don’t feel like it’s as strong as they want it to be,” Scott said. “And then you talk to those who are for datacenters, they think it’s too strong…

“When you are a blue city leader in the midst of the red state, you have to figure out how to get in the middle, and still be progressive at the same time.”

Scott has a good personal relationship with the Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Donald Trump’s former spokesperson, and daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Sanders and Scott got to know each other when they worked as political aides over the course of their careers – he for the former Democratic governor Mike Beebe, and she for Senator John Boozman.

“We’ve always had to interact with each other over the years, which is a good thing,” Scott said.

That helps mitigate the legislative threat from the state’s lawmakers, who view the city’s progressive politics with contempt. Little Rock’s lawyers wordsmithed their way through state law to provide as few footholds for a legal challenge to their datacenter ordinance – or future legislation – as they could.

“There’s a very hostile relationship between the state legislature and Little Rock, so much so that I do not – I mean, we hire a lobbyist to represent us – but I don’t step foot in there because I don’t want to bring too much attention,” said Scott. “There are states that are trying to take things away that cities own, because they’re literally considered a blue and a progressive city.”

A 500-plus-page feasibility study on bringing more nuclear energy to Arkansas seemed to be well-received by state lawmakers on Thursday, but some of them were quick to say there would be limits on how much the state could help in expanding that industry.

The $305,000 study, delivered to the legislative Joint Committee on Energy, was undertaken to give the state a better understanding of whether additional nuclear energy was feasible for Arkansas and, if so, where those new nuclear power plants should be located.

Brian Meadors, a nuclear engineer and lawyer, represented EXCEL Services Corp., the company that did the study. He said the state needs nuclear energy because the demand for power will grow by 35% over the next five years and would double in the not-too-distant future. At the same time demand is rapidly rising, coal plants are coming offline in Arkansas, namely White Bluff in Jefferson County, by the end of 2028, and one in Independence County two years later.

The power demands, he said, will make nuclear power a necessity.

“And as we all know, progress and economic vitality follow energy,” he said, adding that he had talked to officials in several counties around the state “and they are ready and willing for new nuclear.”

Meadors lives in Memphis but grew up in Fort Smith. He and two other men, both with Arkansas connections, started a company in February called Blue Diamond Atomics, to help get new power plants up and running. 

Financing for these future projects took up a good bit of the almost two-hour meeting. Joining Meadors was Paul Murphy, with Murphy Energy and Infrastructure Consulting, who was being live-streamed and took the lead on questions about money. Because building a nuclear plant is so expensive and takes so long – sometimes costing three times what was originally budgeted and twice the predicted amount of time – private investors are scarce because they don’t want to wait a decade or more to start getting a return on their investment. For that reason, Murphy said, financial assistance from state and federal governments is necessary. One of the ways the state could help, the two said, was to guarantee that bills would be paid in case there were cost overruns.

Several lawmakers jumped in there to say they would never want to put the state in that position.

“That gives me pause,” said state Sen. Jimmy Hickey Jr. (R-Texarkana). “For the state to be the cost-overrun backstop, I would hope that this body would never do that. … I hope that we’d never go down that road.”

“We could bankrupt the state,” state Rep. Zach Gramlich (R-Fort Smith) said.

“Our goal is not to put Arkansas in the utility business but to bring down barriers and make the playing field easier,” said Sen. Matt McKee (R-Hot Springs).

Murphy said those were valid concerns, adding that in exchange the state could lay claim to some of the assets at the site in case of a default.

“We certainly don’t want the state to be sitting there with a blank check,” Murphy said.

A question about the state providing a bridge loan for nuclear projects sounded like it could have happened on a used car lot – except for the numbers involved.

“How much we talking about? I need an idea,” said Hickey.

“Eight figures,” Murphy said. “So tens of millions of dollars.”

Meadors went on to talk about the dependability of nuclear energy over solar and wind, with nuclear working when the sun isn’t shining or the wind blowing, and the relative safety of the industry, which puts it somewhere between solar and wind and thousands of times safer than coal plants.

Meadors said he wasn’t asking the state to invest millions of dollars into nuclear development in the way that some states have. Texas, for example, has committed $350 million toward such development, and Tennessee has put up $95 million. 

Instead, Meadors said, state spending could be more targeted, such as helping vendors get certified so they are ready to provide parts and equipment for a nuclear site. That, he said, would be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars rather than millions.

Meadors said it would also help if the state created the position of “atomic coordinator,” someone who would take the lead on economic development, public engagement and safety. That position was written into law many decades ago but has never been filled.

Meadors said that as he looked around the state for suitable sites for nuclear plants, he first considered whether the electrical grid was in place and strong enough to handle the input of hundreds of megawatts that a nuclear plant would create. He found six potential sites but dismissed the two in eastern Arkansas because they are near the New Madrid Fault, which is a strong fault line capable of producing very strong earthquakes, according to the United States Geological Survey. 

Meadors said technology exists to combat earthquakes, such as putting a plant on rollers, but extra features would increase the overall cost. One possibility for a site is adjacent to Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville.

The positive economic impact to the state, Meadors and Murphy said, would be considerable, ranging from hundreds of permanent jobs per installation (about 1,000 people work at the plant in Russellville, for example), to an increase in taxes and the production of carbon-free energy. 

“The end result is staggering,” Murphy said, referencing the fact that nuclear plants operate for many decades.  

Meadors said after the meeting ended that he thought it had gone well.

“The committee’s engagement today showed Arkansas is taking nuclear power seriously, and the study gives them a clear path forward,” he said.

Outdoor enthusiasts visiting many of Arkansas’ wildlife management areas and lakes may now need more than hiking boots or a kayak to enjoy the outdoors.

As of July 1, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) requires anyone age 16 or older who uses certain commission-owned wildlife management areas (WMAs) and lakes for activities such as hiking, kayaking, camping, birdwatching, wildlife photography, or paddling to purchase a new annual WMA/Lake Conservation Permit unless they already hold a valid Arkansas hunting or fishing license.

The permit costs $10.50 per year and is available anywhere Arkansas hunting and fishing licenses are sold, including the AGFC website and mobile app.

The new requirement applies only to 61 AGFC-owned wildlife management areas and 41 commission-owned lakes. It does not apply to national forests, state parks, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property, or many cooperatively managed WMAs.

According to AGFC officials, the permit is intended to ensure all users help pay for maintaining the properties they enjoy.

Assistant Chief of Communications Trey Reid said hunters and anglers have long funded wildlife management areas through license purchases in addition to paying Arkansas’ conservation sales tax.

“Hundreds of anglers also pay that conservation sales tax, and they buy licenses to directly contribute to the maintenance, upkeep and conservation of these areas,” Reid said.

Revenue generated by the new permit will be used primarily for improvements on AGFC-managed properties, including road maintenance, resurfacing boat ramps, replacing aging infrastructure, and other maintenance projects.

Officials also say the permit allows the agency to better engage with hikers, paddlers, campers, photographers, and other visitors who use the properties but have not traditionally contributed through license sales.

But not everyone agrees with the new fee.

Some outdoor recreation groups have questioned whether people should have to pay an additional fee to access public land that is already supported by tax dollars. Others have said they support additional funding for conservation but want more transparency about how permit revenue will be spent.

The rollout has also generated confusion over exactly where the permit applies.

Because only AGFC-owned properties are covered, visitors have reported difficulty determining whether a permit is required at certain locations. Agency officials have acknowledged the confusion and say additional signs and QR codes will be installed at affected properties while more guidance is provided online.

Questions have also been raised about situations where state parks and AGFC properties overlap, leaving some visitors uncertain whether the permit is required.

Although failing to purchase the permit can result in a citation and fine, AGFC says education, not enforcement, is the current priority.

“Our game wardens are not staking out wildlife management areas and lakes looking to catch people,” Reid said. “Because this is new, we’re focused on helping people understand the requirement.”

While Arkansas’ new permit has generated attention, it is not the first state to require recreational users to help fund wildlife management areas.

Louisiana has long required a Wildlife Management Area Access Permit for most visitors using state-managed WMAs, including hikers, paddlers, birdwatchers, and photographers who are not otherwise covered by certain hunting or fishing licenses.

Arkansas’ approach differs by exempting anyone who already holds a hunting or fishing license, effectively asking non-hunting and non-fishing recreationists to contribute alongside the sportsmen and women who have traditionally funded wildlife conservation.

Whether the new permit becomes a model for other states remains to be seen, but the debate highlights a growing question facing wildlife agencies nationwide: how to fund public lands as more people use them for recreation beyond hunting and fishing.

Keith Lusher

Keith Lusher is an award-winning outdoor journalist who resides in Covington, Louisiana. He owns and operates NorthshoreFishingReport.com and writes a weekly outdoor column for the Slidell Independent Newspaper. He also writes for the St.Tammany Parish Tourism Commission’s VisitTheNorthshore.com. He is the former host of The Northshore Fishing Report Radio Show and is on the board of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association. Keith contributes to numerous publications both online and in print and prides himself on promoting South Louisiana’s unique fishery. To contact Keith email: keithlusherjr@gmail.com