Data Center NDA In Rural Alabama Required That Local Govt Destroy Records Whenever Developers Demand It [View all]

BESSEMER, Ala.—After months of resistance, officials in a historic suburb of Birmingham have released a non-disclosure agreement between city leaders and developers of a hyperscale data center. The release of the agreement came after environmental groups threatened to sue Bessemer over its unwillingness to share public documents related to the proposed construction of a 4.5 million-square-foot hyperscale data center on the rural southwest edge of the city of 25,000.

The text of the non-disclosure agreement, originally effective in February 2025 and amended in February 2026, prohibits “the City of Bessemer” from publicly releasing information related to Project Marvel in any of six categories, including information about the project’s developers, site plans, and reports or studies or any “other information that would reasonably be considered non-public.”

The agreement contains a provision that requires city officials to destroy all copies of information the developer considers confidential when the agreement expires or at any time the developer requests. That includes copies of notes about the project taken by city officials, according to the agreement’s text.

The city clerk did not respond to a request for comment from the mayor or other city officials, including questions about whether any records were destroyed to comply with the secrecy agreement. Cleo King, a Bessemer city council member who has voted against rezoning measures for Project Marvel, told Inside Climate News he was “totally shocked” that city officials signed such an agreement with the data center developer. “I can’t say who all signed—all I know is it wasn’t Cleo King,” he said.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13072026/alabama-data-center-non-disclosure-agreement/