I disagree with The Blade’s editorial that we should not vote for a constitutional amendment prohibiting data centers greater than 25 megawatts. A 25 MW facility marks the line between a community-friendly operation and an industrial scale data center that consumes power equivalent to a small town. Our petition simply says that anything bigger than this should be prohibited, because it has outsized impacts on our power grid, environment, and local resources. Hiding behind nondisclosure agreements shows a lack of transparency. If these data centers are so beneficial, why all the secrecy? In many cases the general population is paying for the upgrades. Government entities have given them huge tax abatements.
Yes, they have provided jobs during the building phase, but previous behavior on the part of the data centers that have operated leads one to believe that they are not concerned about the negative effects they have caused. These companies have not been honest about environmental and noise concerns, water usage and disposal, extremely demanding electric and power usage. Wells going dry, diesel fumes, steam clouds with particulate discharge, temperature islands around data centers, EPA lowering water dispersal standards, etc. These things all are cause for concern. I attended the Will-Power OH LLC Apollo public information session and hearing. I was surprised that greenhouse gas emissions aren’t even listed as they are not required in this case. There is only one air monitoring system in Wood County, and it’s not near the Middleton Township data center being built. People living near data systems say asthma, pulmonary, and other health conditions have been negatively impacted.
The lack of attention by our legislators in enacting laws regarding improper usage of AI (for instance using AI without permission another person’s image and voice), noise limitations, facility location, utility location, eminent domain, traffic, zoning/setbacks to homes, schools, businesses, and safety issues has forced the citizens to try to ensure our health and safety as the people we have elected have not done so. Until these are addressed in a consistent positive transparent way, there should be, in my opinion, more attention to these matters prior to building more data centers. As that has not happened, people are upset and want something done to protect us as it appears that our elected officials have not done this. Banning large data centers will at least show our legislators that they have not done their job…