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BOYCE – Amy Kremer told a small crowd gathered on a parking lot that she isn’t against artificial intelligence or technology, but it should be left to people to decide whether they want to welcome data centers into their communities.
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“This technology is the most powerful technology in human history,” she said. “It’s been built on American data, American land, American resources, American energy, and many times with American taxpayer dollars. Yet the American people have no seat at the table, no voice in the fight on how the technology affects our lives now, how it will impact us in the future.
“And now they’re coming into our communities and shoving their infrastructure down our throats, and it is wrong.”
Kremer is the chair of Humans First, which bills itself as a grassroots conservative group “fighting for an America First AI policy,” according to a news release.
Kremer and her AI Data Center Revolt tour arrived in Boyce on Saturday evening, the second stop on a national tour of cities that’s set to end Sept. 16 in Washington, D.C. It started in Dallas at the mini Republican convention last week, then had its first stop in Austin before heading to Rapides Parish.
The reason it stopped in Boyce is because of the $3.6 billion AI factor data center, Data Forge 1, under construction not far outside of the town on former farmland. It is being built by Applied Digital, a Dallas-based company.
At a June public meeting in Boyce, representatives from Applied Digital, regional economic development organization Louisiana Central and Cleco, which is set to power the center, spoke with citizens about what the project is, how it would operate and what it might bring to the parish.
But the outreach mostly was met by skeptism by those in attendance, and that was mirrored Saturday in the words of those who spoke.
Kremer said her group doesn’t support moratoriums on data centers, either on the federal or state level.
“What we believe is that the communities should decide what they want in their own community. We believe in local control,” she said to applause. “If a community wants a data center, then by all means, vote in the people who are going to approve, permit it, build your data center and there you go. That’s the American way.”
For Gary Musgrove, president of grassroots group Save My Louisiana founded in 2025 to oppose carbon capture sequestration projects, it’s questions about Cleco’s ability to provide power to the center.
He said Cleco has been contracted to provide 430 megawatts of electricity, which he said translates to 250,000 homes or 25% of the company’s output.
“Our question is, where is Cleco gonna come up with this power?” he asked.
Musgrove worries that surrounding land could be expropriated for the project. Eminent domain issues are why the group turned its attention to the data center, he said, even though it hasn’t been an issue so far.
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He cited President Donald Trump’s comments about data centers, that communities fighting them are going to miss out on economic development and that the centers will be responsible for generating their own electrical power.
“If that’s the case, I’m very concerned with the fact that Cleco is gonna be short 430 megawatts of electrical generation power,” Musgrove said. “Where are they gonna get that from? If they’re going to use eminent domain and build out the infrastructure to get this power to them, or is this community gonna listen to 196 generators running to compensate for the 430 megawatts that is required?”
He said questions about that, asked at the June forum, weren’t answered because the company said it was propriety information.
Dustin McAnn, a teacher and rancher who lives in LaSalle Parish but works in Rapides, saw a survey stake in a median near his barn. He discovered that power company Entergy is planning to install a transmission line that will feed Hyperion, the massive Meta data center being built about 30 miles east of Monroe.
That was news to him.
“How could this happen?” he asked. “I literally moved out here to get away from people, and here they all come to try to move transmission lines and everything else on top of me.”
McAnn began reaching out to his state representatives and the Louisiana Public Service Commission. With his neighbors, they found other survey stakes and contacted the landowners.
From that, they formed the Louisiana Landowners Coalition, which opposes efforts by Entergy and Meta to expropriate property for the Richland Parish project.
“Private property should never be expropriated for private enterprise,” he said. “I don’t think it should be expropriated period, but certainly not for a billionaire and his corporation. If he wants it, he can get one less yacht, he can get with Entergy, spend the money it takes to build the power plants right there at Meta, and have a field day.”
McAnn said he believes the landowners will be getting offer letters soon from Entergy for their land.
“We’ve told our membership to say no, to stand together, locked shoulder to shoulder, and let’s make this as difficult on Entergy as we possibly can,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Citizens ‘have no seat at the table’ on data centers, says organizer
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Reporting by Melissa Gregory, Alexandria Town Talk / Alexandria Town Talk
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This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 2:50 PM.