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Willie Nelson has spoken out against the construction of data centers across America, releasing a statement encouraging citizens to fight the proliferation of facilities that “only destroy the environment around them.”
The country legend published an open letter on social media describing how he grew up in Abbott, Texas, and that the community needs to “fight against data centers invading our land.”
“The last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter),” he wrote. “The strength of rural America has never come from big industrial footprints. It comes from generations of people, open spaces, local business, and a connection to the land. All of America deserves thoughtful stewardship that doesn’t steal farmland (where our essential shared-food is grown) and small family farmers’ livelihoods, and not data centers that only destroy the environment around them.”
He ended with a motivating word for Americans to fight back: “Whoever controls food and water, controls the masses. Let’s not allow our own demise or give up control over necessary resources in the U.S. and especially in Abbott.”
Data centers have elicited strong pushback in recent years over concerns about both their political implications and adverse effects on the environment and local communities. In Nelson’s native Texas, Governor Greg Abbott recently called for a ban on data center development in rural neighborhoods after previously proposing regulations for data centers to add new power generation to the grid and reuse their own water, among other guidelines.
Nelson himself has long been an environmentalist, raising over $70 million through Farm Aid to help rural farmers and millions more for disaster relief and veterans. He also supports Feeding America and the American Red Cross, among other philanthropic pursuits.
