{"id":20510,"date":"2026-07-29T02:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20510"},"modified":"2026-07-29T02:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:56:11","slug":"willie-nelson-wants-communities-to-fight-data-centers-in-open-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20510","title":{"rendered":"Willie Nelson Wants Communities to &#8220;Fight&#8221; Data Centers In Open Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Willie-Nelson.jpg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"1614486\" data-title=\"Willie Nelson Tells Communities to \u201cFight\u201d Data Centers In Open Letter\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/willie-nelson-against-data-centers\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"1\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/artist\/willie-nelson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Willie Nelson<\/a> has come out strong against data centers, publishing an opening letter on July 28th that said communities need to fight against the environmentally destructive server warehouses.<\/p>\n<p>The country music icon posted his letter on social media, telling people that he grew up in Abbott, Texas, has a home there with farmed land \u201c where I can still see stars at night.\u201d He then gave his protest against data centers. \u201cOur community, like many others, needs to fight against data centers invading our land,\u201d Nelson wrote. \u201cThe last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter).\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vivid-seats.pxf.io\/c\/1882189\/952533\/12730?subId1=willie-nelson%2Awillie-nelson-data-centers-button&amp;subId2=&amp;subId3=&amp;sharedid=&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vividseats.com%2Fwillie-nelson-tickets%2Fperformer%2F937\" class=\"button button-ticket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Get Willie Nelson Tickets Here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/farm-aid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Farm Aid<\/a>, which <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2025\/05\/farm-aid-2025-lineup-minneapolis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">celebrated 40 years in 2025<\/a>, Nelson rallied for rural America and small farms in his letter, saying, \u201cThe strength of rural America has never come from big industrial footprints. It comes from generations of people, open spaces, local businesses, and a connection to the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>America deserves \u201cthoughtful stewardship\u201d that doesn\u2019t steal farmland and small family farmers\u2019 livelihoods \u201cand not data centers that only destroy the environment around them,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p>He ended his letter with a call for the kind of thoughtful stewardship he opined on and against corporate control of lands. \u201cWhoever controls food and water, controls the masses. Let\u2019s not allow our own demise or give up control over necessary resources in the U.S. and especially in Abbott.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Data centers are a growing concern in the U.S., with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/09\/climate\/data-center-bans.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">opponents<\/a> pointing to their massive consumption of water, land and energy to power AI and enrich tech billionaires. Numerous municipalities and states have banned or halted the building of data centers with Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/06\/30\/texas-abbott-data-center-development-ban-rural-communities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">calling for a block<\/a> on such server warehouses in rural parts of the state.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson put out his 79th solo studio LP, <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/03\/willie-nelson-new-album-dream-chaser-tour-dates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Dream Chaser<\/em>, in May<\/a>. Farm Aid is on September 26th in Virginia Beach. Nelson is also touring throughout the summer as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2025\/04\/willie-nelson-turns-92-to-kick-off-2025-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Outlaw Country Festival Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">To whom it may concern and to everyone else as well, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GQxuxUj3ie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/GQxuxUj3ie<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Willie Nelson (@WillieNelson) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WillieNelson\/status\/2082197453864907116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script>\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=1;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('set','agent','tmgoogletagmanager', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><script defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v7.0&#038;appId=434175690014\" nonce=\"6gwmbCtM\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Willie Nelson has come out strong against data centers, publishing an opening letter on July 28th that said communities need to fight against the environmentally destructive server warehouses. The country music icon posted his letter on social media, telling people that he grew up in Abbott, Texas, has a home there with farmed land \u201c&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Willie-Nelson.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}