Image Credit: Canva & Facebook accounts of Brent Taylor & Justin Pearson.
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article posted here for informational purposes only.
Article by Kim Jarrett, The Center Square –
The two candidates vying to be the next congressman from Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District have different views on a data center moratorium under consideration by the Memphis City Council.
Democrat Justin Pearson says the council should pass it when it meets on Oct. 6.
“Memphis is at the crossroads in its data center journey where we have an opportunity to achieve the transparency, accountability and regulations needed to protect residents from the pollution that is hurting our air quality, draining our water resources, and destroying our quality of life,” Pearson, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, said in a statement.
He appeared with environmental justice activist Erin Brockovich at an event on Wednesday.
Pearson opposed the construction of xAI’s Colossus. Pearson’s opponent, Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor, said testimony from a recent Memphis City Council meeting shows no major issues with air pollution in the Memphis xAI area.
“We want to make sure all of our industrial customers, whether it’s a data center or any kind of factory, that they’re not polluting the air and the water that we use,” Taylor told The Center Square. “So it’s important to monitor them along with every other industrial user. But it’s also important that we give facts and not mislead people.”
A moratorium would give xAI a monopoly because it only applies to new data centers and does not affect ongoing operations, Taylor said. He sponsored a bill that requires data centers to have their energy source or pay the infrastructure costs associated with it.
“My opponent voted against it,” Taylor told The Center Square. “It was the only bill regulating data center costs that came out of the General Assembly last year.”
xAI’s Colossus did not receive tax breaks from the city or state; instead, it is investing 25% of the tax revenue it generates into communities within 5 miles of the site, according to an agreement reached by Memphis leaders in 2025.
The $3.3 million collected in fiscal year 2026 is proposed for nine different projects, according to the council’s agenda. The largest amount of money, $1.4 million, will go toward home repair assistance and other issues related to housing stability. The proposed plan allocates $500,000 to pay workers to clean up the neighborhood.
Pearson and Taylor are running in the newly configured District 9. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., decided not to run for reelection after his Memphis district was divided by the General Assembly to give Republicans an edge in congressional races and all nine of Tennessee’s seats.
One Response
Whichever, whatever, the fact remains that they’re BAD neighbors.