{"id":1543934,"date":"2025-06-26T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1543934"},"modified":"2025-06-26T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T01:40:00","slug":"big-data-centers-are-booming-but-secret-deals-draw-local-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/big-data-centers-are-booming-but-secret-deals-draw-local-opposition\/1543934\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Data Centers Are Booming, But Secret Deals Draw Local Opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Data Centers Are Booming, But Secret Deals Draw Local Opposition<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

From Georgia to Oregon, New England to New Mexico, data center projects are drawing opposition in local government hearings by residents concerned about the voracious demand for electricity, water consumption, and noise<\/strong>. Critics also argue that data centers don\u2019t produce the jobs other land uses generate.<\/p>\n

In an aerial view, the IAD71 Amazon Web Services data center is seen in Ashburn, Va., on July 17, 2024. Northern Virginia is the world\u2019s largest and fastest-growing data center market, with Ashburn known as \u201cData Center Alley\u201d for its dense cluster of facilities. But rising concerns over energy use and land availability have sparked debate among local communities. Nathan Howard\/Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In Texas, people in small towns question data center development in the broader context of rapid rural industrialization.<\/p>\n

In Pennsylvania, ad hoc groups say data centers are tapping into nearby natural gas fields, increasing the frequency of fracking, and straining water supplies.<\/p>\n

In Indiana, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and across the country, residents say the scale and proximity of these high-tech campuses degrade their neighborhoods and devalue properties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Objections vary<\/a>, depending on proposal and site, but a common complaint is state and local governments offering data center projects tax incentives that are often shielded from public scrutiny through nondisclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

Companies say these pacts shield proprietary corporate intelligence, but the perceived lack of transparency fosters suspicion and anger when residents realize local planners are set to approve a proposal they knew little to nothing about until it appeared to be a done deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust from our experience, it seems like one of the big concerns is that, yeah, there is no community outreach<\/strong>,\u201d Kamil Cook, Public Citizen\u2019s Texas climate and clean energy associate, told the Epoch Times. \u201cThere\u2019s no method by which the community can be informed in a way that actually makes it seem like their voice is valued and that they have a choice in these matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of this local opposition appears rooted in the complaint that people \u201cweren\u2019t informed to begin with, were ignored at some point,\u201d said Joe Warnimont, who co-authored a February HostingAdvice.com survey<\/a>. The survey of 800 people in 16 states found that 93 percent agreed that \u201ccutting-edge AI data centers are vital to the United States,\u201d but only 35 percent want one in their town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main insights are there is clearly a disconnect between what the local residents experience and what is being sold to these communities from developers<\/strong>,\u201d Warnimont told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

Protect PT executive director Gillian Graber said her western Pennsylvania nonprofit had no idea that planners in Westmoreland County\u2019s Upper Burrell township were considering TECfusions\u2019 bid to build a data center at a former Alcoa site, until reading a local newspaper article.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were, like, \u2018What is this thing? What\u2019s happening? What does that mean for the community in Upper Burrell?\u2019\u201d she told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

Construction continues on phases three through five of a Facebook data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah, on Oct. 5, 2021. As artificial intelligence drives demand for greater data processing, data center projects nationwide are facing local pushback. George Frey\/Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

When residents contacted local planners and officials \u201cearly on\u201d to get project details, they wouldn\u2019t discuss specifics, or \u201cthey didn\u2019t really seem to know a lot about it,\u201d Graber said.<\/p>\n

Protect PT, which stands for Protect Penn-Teller, was founded in Graber\u2019s Harrison City living room a decade ago to challenge fracking and other industrial development some residents say are degrading the area\u2019s environment, she said.<\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t won many battles, but they continue to show up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLike with everything we work on, it\u2019s always larger corporations and large industries that come into rural communities and think they can just do whatever they want,\u201d Graber said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see that happen again … but I see history repeating itself again, and again, and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cursory Facebook search finds dozens of ad hoc local groups with pages where similar claims are aired.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Texans in Granbury\u00a0say<\/a> \u201cworking-class residents living next to giant, loud, environmentally-destructive data centers are the ones paying the price for Texas\u2019s crypto boom.\u201d Minnesotans call on state legislators to impose more restrictions because \u201cthese developments are reshaping our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 3,500 members of the Stop Duneland and Valpo\/Wheeler Data Centers Facebook group<\/a> in Indiana express frustration that a planning commission has threatened to waive public hearings on a proposed data center project. The page is rife with comments such as, \u201cWe have no voice anymore? Seems like that\u2019s a dictatorship in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tax Revenue Boon<\/h2>\n

The Data Center Coalition, which represents 36 \u201chyperscalers\u201d\u2014corporations including Meta, AWS, and Microsoft\u2014and co-location companies that own data centers leased to operators, such as Equinix, acknowledged data center projects are drawing resistance in some areas, but noted most criticism is standard for any development proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that sometimes gets lost in media coverage<\/strong>,\u201d Jon Hukill, communications director of the Washington-based coalition, told The Epoch Times. \u201cData centers want to be good neighbors. They communicate with HOAs [home owners associations] and citizens and local and state governments before, during, and after the permitting process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data center industry is not monolithic. There are a wide variety of companies,\u201d Hukill said.<\/p>\n

Data centers are expensive to build and plan to be operating in a community for many years, he said, so developers and operators strictly follow laws, zoning, and land-use regulations.<\/p>\n

Read the rest\u00a0here…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 06\/26\/2025 – 17:40<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/ai\/big-data-centers-are-booming-secret-deals-draw-local-opposition<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big Data Centers Are Booming, But Secret Deals Draw Local Opposition Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), From Georgia to Oregon,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1543935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}