Tech companies and local officials are covering data center talks in NDAs
Local officials and data center developers are increasingly using nondisclosure agreements to shield negotiations from public scrutiny. Residents and experts argue this practice limits transparency and prevents communities from understanding the environmental and economic impacts of large-scale infrastructure projects.
Why it matters
The trend reflects a growing tension between rapid industrial expansion and the public's right to participate in local governance.
By fields of cotton and soybeans where his bees forage and pollinate, Foster Hensel pries open the lid of one of his beehives, setting off a rising hum from inside.
"You hear the difference in the sound?" he asks, pumping the bellows of a small smoker to try and settle the bees. "They're getting a little aggravated."
What has Hensel concerned is a few miles down the road. In Boyce, a small town in Rapides Parish in central Louisiana, construction is starting on a 300-acre data center site.
The beekeeper worries the new warehouse-like facilities will raise his utility bills or change the local environment. And he asks why there's not more information.
"Let me quote a good writer, Shakespeare — there's something rotten in Denmark," Hensel said. "There's something wrong with that."
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