Counties are What needs to be fought over, and the easiest to do so. Most of the county officials are either old people or evil, but there are enough of us to being up ourselves to pressure them in an easier way than at state level. They all must be fought
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.
There is another bill stuck in committee that would make the type of NDA signed by the commissioners illegal. Probably won't go anywhere but it's proof that we're not alone in seeing these things as corruption.
Good God. What an asshole. That's my considered analytical judgment. He didn't just "say the quiet part out loud," to use Entirely Too Online vocabulary, he rammed it down everybody's throats. It's more than a little scary how much money and power is behind this: usually public officials at least try to go through the motions of getting public input. With this data center thing, from county commissions on up to the not-really-populist White House, the powers that be aren't even bothering to pretend.
It's truly unbelievable. The commissioners covered their asses by saying he was just an individual speaking his mind but I'm pretty sure they brought him in specifically to put us in our place. Luckily I'm not only one who is furious.
Good for you for bringing this to light. Vivek will be no help if he is governor. He is all on board for this garbage. It would be helpful if everyone would vote in the primary and November to make sure he isn’t elected. I agree it’s easier to fight at the county level. At least the people are generally living in the county and don’t come and dump their dumb ideas and then leave the mess for residents to deal with.
You might be 20 miles away from the proposed data center, but you may be on the same electrical company grid and water system (or ground water aquifer), which could impact your price and availability of those very necessary utilities in the future.
Yes absolutely! I didn't mean to imply it wouldn't affect me. There are huge issues like the ones you mentioned which residents keep bringing up and are met with total stonewalling.
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?
Counties are What needs to be fought over, and the easiest to do so. Most of the county officials are either old people or evil, but there are enough of us to being up ourselves to pressure them in an easier way than at state level. They all must be fought
I agree. Fighting them at the county or city council level is the way to do it. These fights can be won.
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.
There is another bill stuck in committee that would make the type of NDA signed by the commissioners illegal. Probably won't go anywhere but it's proof that we're not alone in seeing these things as corruption.
Good God. What an asshole. That's my considered analytical judgment. He didn't just "say the quiet part out loud," to use Entirely Too Online vocabulary, he rammed it down everybody's throats. It's more than a little scary how much money and power is behind this: usually public officials at least try to go through the motions of getting public input. With this data center thing, from county commissions on up to the not-really-populist White House, the powers that be aren't even bothering to pretend.
It's truly unbelievable. The commissioners covered their asses by saying he was just an individual speaking his mind but I'm pretty sure they brought him in specifically to put us in our place. Luckily I'm not only one who is furious.
Good for you for bringing this to light. Vivek will be no help if he is governor. He is all on board for this garbage. It would be helpful if everyone would vote in the primary and November to make sure he isn’t elected. I agree it’s easier to fight at the county level. At least the people are generally living in the county and don’t come and dump their dumb ideas and then leave the mess for residents to deal with.
Vivek will be a disaster. Endorsed by Trump!
You might be 20 miles away from the proposed data center, but you may be on the same electrical company grid and water system (or ground water aquifer), which could impact your price and availability of those very necessary utilities in the future.
Yes absolutely! I didn't mean to imply it wouldn't affect me. There are huge issues like the ones you mentioned which residents keep bringing up and are met with total stonewalling.
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?
There is speculation that they will build a gas-fired power plant on site. Or perhaps a small nuclear reactor. The people in the know aren't saying.