Our Words and Actions
Electrify Everything - Drive Electric Month
This past week, we joined our allies from the Evolve Electric Vehicle Group for a celebration of Drive Electric Month. Like many, KCC’s Director had pondered making the leap into electric vehicles for some time before actually purchasing one. She purchased her EV at the end of 2024, and had never looked back. The addition of an electric car, added to the investment in 16 solar panels a few years earlier, has provided her household enough energy over the Summer to fuel both the house and car for pennies, with an even quicker payback on the investment now that gasoline at over $4/gallon. And while KCC prefers to advocate for less car driving on the whole, and a continuing transition to other low-impact transportation means such as mass transit and cycling, this month’s Drive Electric campaign highlights just one more tool in the toolbox for cleaner air as we work to transition the power sector.
Left, Center- Drive Electric Week in Louisville. Right: A screening of “Look & See” in December
Announcing: Kentucky Voices 2026
This year, we’re doing something different for our annual celebration of local authors and artists. Most years we have hosted 2-3 local authors for an evening of readings, as a “thank you” for all our members and supporters. However this year, following the passing of Wendell Berry at the end of August this year, we have decided to host a presentation of the documentary “Look & See- A Portrait of Wendell Berry” A film that reminds us of Wendell’s focus on rural America in the era of industrial agriculture. We hope you will join us in Frankfort on December 10th for this very special screening, where we can spend an evening in fellowship, and consider how we continue this legacy. Save the date!
More Impacts from the Data Center “rush”
Among the multiple impacts created by data centers, we’re taking a minute to focus on one impacted industry. AI-driven data center growth is reshaping metals demand. Aluminum, copper, steel, graphite and critical minerals are all seeing stronger consumption as data center construction and power infrastructure expand across the US. Yet the irony is that the efforts to win the race in data center development is displacing the very industries that can support it. Products and materials consisting of primary and secondary aluminum are used throughout data centers. And yet, last February, it was announced that Kentucky’s Century Aluminum would sell its Hawesville smelter campus to TerraWulf for an Ai campus.
Hawesville was the largest U.S. producer of high purity aluminum for defense applications, and that capacity is now gone. The new owners of the site have already signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic, expected to generate $19 billion of revenue over the initial term. The projected lease revenue implies an average of $950 million a year over the initial 20-year term, compared to Century Aluminum’s $1.41 billion in 2025 revenue for ALL of its U.S. primary aluminum sales.
What kind of long-term impact will the rush for data centers have on our industrial base, as Ai companies compete with heavy industry sites that have easy access necessary to power their operations? This is one more question we need to add to our list of concerns.
In the meantime, you can refer to this article in the Kentucky Lantern for the latest local government actions around data centers. KCC is continuing its work with lawmakers to address your concerns—so keep raising them! And if you want to visit with your lawmaker, please feel free to reach out to us and we are glad to assist you with that visit if you need.
Important Election Deadlines:
In-person, excused absentee voting: October 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, & 28, 2026
In-person, no excuse absentee (early voting) October 29, 30, & 31, 2026
In-person election day voting: November 3, 2026, 6:00AM – 6:00PM, local time
KCC Upcoming Events
October 13, 2026 (Tuesday, 7PM) KCC at the Kentucky Women’s Network meeting, 1009 Hustonville Rd. Danville.
October 14-15, 2026 (Wed-Thurs.)— KCC at Ky. Watershed Network Summit, Berea, KY. Info here.
October 24, 2026 (Saturday, 10AM) — KCC at Louisville Earth Walk, Seneca Park, Louisville. Come join KCC and other environmental nonprofits for a celebration of safe and clean water, air and soil.
December 10, 2026 (Thursday, 7PM) — Kentucky Voices event, Frankfort- featuring the Wendell Berry documentary “Look & See”. More details soon!