Silence Is Compliance

While Corporations Move for Our Water, Our Grid, and Our Neighborhoods—Our Congressman Says Nothing

Something is happening in Indianapolis—and it’s happening quickly.

Corporations are moving for our land. They’re moving for our water. They’re moving for our grid. Communities are raising concerns, asking questions, and trying to understand what these decisions will mean not just next year, but decades from now.

And Congressman André Carson—who has accepted checks from many of the same corporate interests involved in these decisions—has largely remained silent.

At some point, silence stops being neutral.

Silence is compliance.

Martindale-Brightwood Is Another Warning

In Martindale-Brightwood, residents asked reasonable questions about large-scale data center development moving into their neighborhood. These facilities require enormous amounts of electricity and water. They reshape infrastructure and lock in decisions that will affect communities for decades.

Residents showed up. They asked about environmental impacts, noise, water usage, and long-term public health. They weren’t asking to stop progress—they were asking to understand it.

But the projects kept moving forward.

And Congressman Carson?

Silent.

That silence becomes harder to ignore when you consider the broader landscape. Utilities and infrastructure investors—including companies like AES Corporation and BlackRock — stand to benefit from rising industrial energy demand. Both appear in the broader ecosystem surrounding these developments, and both have intersected with campaign finance.

When communities speak and corporations benefit, leadership should step forward. Instead, there was silence.

Silence is compliance.

LEAP—And Our Water

The LEAP District raises the stakes for so many of us.

LEAP—the Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace district—is a massive, state-backed industrial development in Boone County designed to attract large-scale manufacturing, advanced technology, and data-intensive industries. It’s being marketed as a generational economic opportunity. But developments of this scale don’t just require land. They require enormous amounts of water and electricity—resources that ultimately come from communities like ours.

Major tenants include Eli Lilly and Company and Meta—two companies whose operations require significant water and energy infrastructure.

To support that growth, proposals call for sending up to 25 million gallons of water per day from Indianapolis—including from Eagle Creek Reservoir—to Boone County. Local reporting from outlets like WFYI and Mirror Indy has detailed the scale of this proposal and the concerns raised by residents and environmental advocates.

Eagle Creek is one of Central Indiana’s most important public water resources. Once that water is committed, infrastructure follows. And once infrastructure is built, decisions become difficult to reverse.

Some proposals also include treating wastewater from LEAP and returning it to the watershed connected to Eagle Creek. Environmental advocates and local officials have raised concerns that comprehensive long-term studies are still ongoing. That doesn’t mean harm is guaranteed—but it does mean decisions are moving forward before all questions are answered.

And where is Congressman Carson?

Silent.

Meanwhile, campaign finance disclosures show contributions from corporations with major infrastructure demands, including Eli Lilly and Company.

When corporations move toward our water and elected officials who receive their checks remain silent, people notice.

Silence is compliance.

Citizens, Duke, and the Infrastructure Shift

This shift isn’t happening in isolation. Citizens Energy Group is developing infrastructure to move water to LEAP. Pipelines, treatment expansion, and long-term planning decisions are already underway, according to local reporting.

At the same time, electricity demand projections are growing. Utilities like Duke Energy are planning for increased industrial load, driven in part by data centers and large-scale development. Duke Energy has also repeatedly donated to Congressman Carson.

Water is expanding. Power is expanding. Infrastructure is shifting.

And again, Congressman Carson remains largely silent.

Silence is compliance.

The Run on Our Grid

This isn’t just local—it’s national. Large investment firms are moving aggressively into infrastructure and utilities. BlackRock has expanded its infrastructure investments, and reporting from the Wall Street Journal has highlighted how firms like BlackRock are positioning themselves to control essential infrastructure assets.

This includes a BlackRock-led deal to acquire AES Corporation, which ultimately affects local utilities like AES Indiana.

This isn’t just an investment. It’s control over the infrastructure that powers our homes and businesses.

And Congressman Carson has accepted checks from BlackRock.

From AES.

“On September 30th, the Congressman took a donation from BlackRock. It had not even hit public news that BlackRock was thinking about acquiring AES until October 1st… And then he took AES money again in December. And my thing is, is why weren’t you coming back and saying something? You have the platform. Again, you are the highest elected Democratic official. It may not be in your purview, but it was enough so that you took a meeting. And you took a check. And we could have been doing something about while we were having session… Now that the deal is done—now that it was publicly announced—then he had something to say… It’s too late. The damage has been done.” -Destiny Wells, Indy Star, March 30th (click for full clip)

Silence is compliance.

The Deals We’ll Never See

Another layer to this problem is transparency—or the lack of it.

Many of these agreements are negotiated behind nondisclosure agreements. Corporations claim proprietary terms, governments agree, and the public never sees the details. We don’t know the rate reductions, infrastructure subsidies, or long-term commitments.

But we do know this: individuals and small businesses don’t get the same treatment.

A baker in Indianapolis wakes at 3 a.m., uses electricity during off-peak hours, and still pays full price. She doesn’t negotiate behind an NDA. She doesn’t get preferential infrastructure.

Corporations do.

And when elected officials who receive their checks remain silent about these arrangements, it raises serious questions.

Silence is compliance.

Even the Market Is Flashing Warning Signs

There’s something else worth paying attention to here: even the market is starting to slow down.

Utilities are already struggling to meet demand. Transformers—the kind needed for large industrial facilities—can take years to deliver. Supply chains for critical components are strained, and many rely heavily on overseas manufacturing, including China. Projects that once looked inevitable are now being delayed as companies realize the infrastructure isn’t ready.

Recent industry reports suggest that nearly half of planned U.S. data center projects are now facing delays or cancellations due to these constraints.

That should give all of us pause.

Because communities are being asked to accept permanent changes—to their neighborhoods, their water, their grid—for projects that may not even materialize.

We’re being asked to move fast, while the market itself is starting to slow down.

Silence is compliance.

A Way Forward

This doesn’t have to continue.

Congress can prohibit nondisclosure agreements involving public infrastructure and resources. If public water, utilities, or taxpayer dollars are involved, the public deserves transparency.

Congress can explore macro-zoning—regional planning that prevents communities from being forced to absorb industrial development project by project.

Congress can even consider a temporary pause on large-scale data center development while evaluating infrastructure capacity and long-term demand. That’s why I support the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act put forward by AOC and Bernie Sanders.

Because once we commit our water, once we reshape our grid, and once we transform our neighborhoods, there’s no easy way back.

Corporations are moving fast. Congressman Carson has taken their checks. And when leadership remains silent while communities raise concerns, silence ceases to be neutral.

Silence is compliance.

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You can find all of Congressman Carson’s corporate PAC donations here.

Find out more information about my campaign here. We are grassroots funded, and your donations help us get out information like this to the public.

Paid for by Destiny Wells for Congress.