U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is continuing to champion data centers across the Yellowhammer State.

The senator and Republican gubernatorial candidate spoke to the press before the ribbon cutting for Auburn University’s new Applied Research Institute laboratory.

“Data centers are the future,” he argued. “Everybody right now is looking. Hey, we don’t know whether we want data centers. Well, if you don’t have the power right now, and if you don’t have the ability to have a contract for the power, you’re not gonna get one anyway.”

Tuberville has been defending the construction of new data centers in recent weeks, separating himself from his opponent in the gubernatorial race, former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) on the issue.

“We have 20 as we speak. We’ll probably have 10 more in the next seven to eight years,” Tuberville continued. “It’s not fast tracking, and so we need to be able to store information. That’s important. It’s something too that will help communities that don’t have a huge revenue component to bring in tax money. These these things bring in tons of tax money. There’s a there’s a data center going in as we speak in Alabama that’s $78 billion dollars, and it will bring $1 billion worth of tax money per year to that city, $1 billion, not million.”

Jones by contrast has called for a one year moratorium on new data centers being built in Alabama. Other Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) have pushed legislation in Congress that would place a moratorium on their construction nationwide.

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee