The Resolution We Need Most in 2026 Is One We've Had Since 2020

By Maurice Carter, Co-Founder & President

This time of year, thoughts turn naturally to what to make of the new year ahead.  But perhaps I'm not the only one still struggling with what to make of the year just passed?  Has it really even passed?

It's been a tough 12 months for those of us committed to forging concern about the climate crisis into productive climate action.  It's not that we aren't making progress -- the trend lines and momentum on the clean energy transition are extremely positive.  But across the climate movement, we've been buffeted and battered by political headwinds emanating from Washington, DC, making every ounce of progress hard-earned.

Yet, I have faith the market advantages of clean energy (faster & cheaper than fossil fuels) and electric vehicles (beloved by their owners) will prevail.  Where our future feels less certain and our anxiety most intense is locally -- where a proliferation of data center projects stand poised to erase much of the progress our state and local community have made on improving air quality, reducing climate pollution, conserving water, and controlling growth.  The energy, water, and land demands of explosive AI data center growth are one of the biggest issues of our time, and we can't simply turn the page to a clean start.  Indeed, we've spent the closing days of 2025 joining other concerned organizations to inject some reasonableness into data center plans, while our Environmental Hazards Committee is working to surface all of the potential projects and assess the community risks of each.

All of this has me thinking not about new resolutions for 2026, but instead about an old resolution adopted -- but never fully operationalized -- by the Covington City Council for Earth Day in April of 2020.  First a little background, and then I'll explain the connection to our current data center crossroads in Covington and Newton County...

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