The data center is coming!
With bonus audio of government employee explaining to peasants what is good for them
What happened?! Suddenly data centers projects and communities fighting them are everywhere. A few months ago I found out about a proposed data center in my county. Rumors have it that up to 1600 acres of land could be under contract for sale to an unknown company.
No one knows anything for sure because our county commissioners have been negotiating the deal in secret, possibly for years. They signed a non-disclosure agreement and now act as if it is totally normal for county residents to have no input and even no knowledge of a project that will forever and completely change the rural nature of an entire township.
The whole region is under attack by often unknown enemies, and corrupt local officials are facilitating the plunder. Some communities are successfully fighting back or at least insisting on moratoriums while the projects are examined. The towns and counties which present the least resistance will end up with hyperscale data centers. How will Appalachia fare, with its long history of exploitation and fierce resistance? Probably not very well, but there are reasons to be hopeful.
Irate citizens are showing up at town council and county commission meetings to voice their anger, and it is a bipartisan anger. Data center battles seem to transcend the traditional Republican/Democrat divide, with people from both sides understanding the nature of the threat. Lawsuits are being filed and anti-data center signs are popping up across rural landscapes.
Please listen to the audio recording above to better understand the contempt that those who stand to benefit from the data center have for us rubes who aren't smart enough to understand what is good for us. These remarks are from Flite Freiman, local attorney and government employee in Washington County, Ohio. Our long Appalachian history of wealthy white men with dollar signs in their eyes explaining to bumpkins how things work is encapsulated in his five minute speech. Give it a listen and share if so inspired.
To be fair I must give credit where it is due: the Washington County, Ohio, commissioners who decided to betray the people who pay their salaries are Charlie Schilling, Eddie Place, and Greg Nohe. Only the first is an elected official. The second two were appointed when previous commissioners vacated the office. A cynical citizen might notice the convenience of these formers officials leaving their posts just at a time when it was important to install data center supporters in these positions.
While this post is a departure from my usual gardening and opinion fare, I feel it's necessary to use any means at my disposal to get the word out about what is happening in my county and this region. Spring is springing and I'll be sharing the glory of it here, but also providing updates on the pillage of my county. While the proposed data center site is over 20 miles away and poses no immediate threat to my farm, there are frightening air and water pollution issues. Allowing one project to go forward could potentially open the floodgates for further development. Our (unelected) officials are sending a loud and clear message that the county is open for pillage.
Flite is a fast talker. He seems very pleased to inform us that property property rights are sacrosanct. If you own it and you want to use it as a nuclear waste dump, well, unfortunate as that may for the local environment, there's nothing anybody can do about it. If that is true, it's wrong. If that is legal, it's a betrayal of democratic principles, which is not surprising given the political climate we live in now. It's all about money in the USA these days. The Great Big Beautiful Bill is pretty emblematic of where we are now. America needs a Teddy Roosevelt-type corporate trust buster for president, but as long as the price of eggs don't go up too much I guess that ain't gonna happen. I live in the Bay Area and the tech bros here pretty much own all our local politicians. I have a few stories along the same lines as what's happening where you live. By the way, data centers are power hogs. How will it affect your local electrical grid? Will they have to build new power plants to keep this thing running?
Ugh!! Ack!! The whole situation is bad. Even if it had been started above board, the protests would just have started sooner. Unfortunately, most small rural communities don't have zoning laws in place to protect against this sort of thing, making protest a complete uphill battle. A similar thing happens with oil and gas projects. Who wants a giant well pad operating near them? But leasing is done with private individuals. If your neighbor leases to some big driller, even if it doesn't go under your property, you could still have it close by. And out here, no zoning either. Something to follow is Ohio House Bill 646 to create a study commission on data center regulation and address local notification requirements. The commission won't have any real power, but negative findings can have impact, and they will also be able to recommend legislation. Sadly, it will not likely be soon enough for this particular project, though.