My name is Mike Stein, chair of the Coffee County Democratic Party and a candidate for the Tennessee House of Representatives. The Air Force is about to decide whether to lease land at Arnold Air Force Base for a massive AI data center, and that decision is expected within weeks if not days.

Under Executive Order 14318, "Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure," signed July 23, 2025, any data center built here must exceed 100 megawatts of power and 500 million dollars in investment. This is an industrial complex the size of a small city, and one proposed site sits directly beside the Bowling Alley Road neighborhood, on the Highland Rim Escarpment that feeds Normandy Lake, the primary drinking water source for Coffee County.

Let us be honest. Most of us do not want this here, and the Coffee County Democratic Party has said so plainly. But this land sits inside a federal base, placed there under an order designed to bypass local control. Our county already passed a one-year moratorium on data centers, and even that cannot touch the base. We may not be able to stop this outright, and pretending otherwise only runs out the clock while we have no protections in place.

So we are doing two things at once: making clear we did not invite this, and refusing to be caught defenseless if it comes anyway.

We have seen the wrong way. In Memphis, the xAI Colossus data center ran dozens of unpermitted gas turbines beside the historically Black Boxtown neighborhood, leaving residents unable to breathe in their own homes. We will not let that become Coffee County's story, and we will speak now, not after the turbines are running.

We have also seen the right way. Nashville's proposed ordinance (Bill BL2026-1391) bans evaporative cooling, requires closed-loop water systems, keeps these facilities half a mile from homes, and blocks any permit until the utilities confirm they can serve it without straining the community. If Tennessee's largest city can require this on private land, then the Air Force can require no less on federal land too.

We therefore call on Representative Scott DesJarlais, Senator Marsha Blackburn, and Senator Bill Hagerty to demand these protections through their oversight authority, and on the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Civil Engineer Center to refrain from signing any lease until these commitments are made binding and public.

On location:

• Build any facility deep within the base near the Arnold Engineering Development Complex, at least half a mile from any home, school, daycare, church, or park.

On water:

• Require a true closed-loop cooling system and prohibit evaporative cooling.
• Allow no withdrawals from Normandy Lake or the Manchester Aquifer that threaten our drinking water.
• Confine all wastewater to Woods Reservoir on base, with no discharge into escarpment tributaries like Wiley Branch.
• Account for the risk that pumping near the old Coffee County Landfill could pull contaminated groundwater toward clean supplies.
• Require written proof from the water authority that capacity exists before any approval.

On power:

• Connect to the grid through a dedicated on-base substation rather than gas turbines.
• Require on-site renewable generation offsetting at least 25 percent of energy from day one, reaching 50 percent within ten years and 100 percent thereafter.
• Limit generators to backup use only, meeting EPA Tier 4 emissions standards.
• Require the Tennessee Valley Authority to guarantee residents' electricity rates will not rise to subsidize this facility.
• Keep all power lines, pipelines, and rights-of-way on base, with no eminent domain seizure of private land.

On air and noise:

• Cap sound at 65 decibels by day and 55 by night at the property line.
• Allow no light pollution onto surrounding land.

On process and transparency:

• Require a full Environmental Impact Statement, not a rushed exemption.
• Guarantee a real public comment period.
• Keep the Air Force as lead negotiator with the utilities, so terms cannot hide behind private nondisclosure agreements.
• Make every commitment binding before the lease is signed.

On community benefit:

• Require the company to pay full property taxes.
• Dedicate a defined share of revenue to a community fund governed by local residents, directed toward what Coffee County has long gone without: new ambulances, a school bus system, repaired and expanded water lines, a homeless shelter, a spay and neuter clinic, and better parks and roads.
• Require an annual public report proving the company keeps every commitment.

Our county did everything it could to rein in data centers, but the base lies beyond its jurisdiction. Only We the People can reach it. If you believe our water, our grid, and our families deserve protection before a single contract is signed, sign and share this petition across Coffee and Grundy Counties, and all of TN-District 4.

The decision is coming in weeks. The time to be heard is now.

Mike Stein
Chair, Coffee County Democratic Party
Candidate for Tennessee House of Representatives, District 47