00:00A Georgia city just banned data centers outright, after residents killed a $13 billion campus planned between two schools.
00:09In St. Louis, a $3 billion project is now in court, and Amazon is promising a billion dollars to win
00:17over the communities that keep saying no.
00:20A small Georgia city just told the data center industry no, and then put it in writing.
00:27Lovejoy, in Clayton County south of Atlanta, faced a proposal from Stillwater Development for a 400-acre campus with 15
00:36buildings and 3.5 million square feet, carrying a projected value of $13 billion.
00:44It would have drawn up to 1.25 gigawatts of power, and it sat on Panhandle Road between two schools
00:52and several neighborhoods.
00:54After residents pushed back, the developer withdrew in August, now the city council has gone further, approving an ordinance on
01:03September 29th that bans data center construction outright.
01:08Resident Ken Worrell summed up the mood, saying many people were against the project and it simply was not welcome
01:15in the community.
01:16Lovejoy is far from alone, with at least 34 Georgia counties in 23 cities already enacting moratoria or restrictions.
01:28That opposition is now making its way into courtrooms.
01:32In St. Louis as a prime example, a proposed $3 billion data center near the armory in Midtown has been
01:39challenged by
01:40Residents Daniel Pate and Carrie McCullen, who sued after the Board of Adjustment denied their appeals and granted the conditional
01:49use permit.
01:50Following nearly 11 hours of public testimony, they argue the decision was arbitrary,
01:57that health and environmental impacts were never properly studied,
02:01and they want the project halted while the case proceeds.
02:05The fight has a second front.
02:07Developer Tara Watt negotiated a community benefit agreement that lets the city independently
02:13analyze its financial projections and allows fines of up to $15,000 for every
02:20$100,000 of promised tax revenue that falls short.
02:25The developer has sued the city,
02:27arguing those requirements exceed its authority.
02:30The mayor's office declined to comment.
02:34And the reason these fights keep gaining momentum comes down to one thing.
02:39Power.
02:40And who pays for it?
02:42In Rockland County, New York,
02:45a U.S. congressman is demanding that Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York Power Authority reveal
02:51the value of discounted hydropower flowing to data centers in Orangeburg.
02:56Three of the four data centers there receive low-cost electricity through a state economic development program.
03:04But the authority has declined to release the numbers.
03:08Citing contractual confidentiality,
03:11that refusal is exactly what fuels public suspicion.
03:15Hydropower from state-owned dams is supposed to benefit New Yorkers.
03:19And residents want to know whether its steepest discounts are going to some of the largest electricity users in the
03:27region.
03:27The congressman's request, reported on September 28th,
03:32turns a technical utility arrangement into a transparency test for state government.
03:38And ratepayers are watching closely.
03:42The pressure on the grid is only half the story.
03:45Because water tells the other half.
03:48In southwest Ohio, Warren County commissioners voted unanimously to approve a six-month moratorium on hyperscale data center development.
03:59The pause applies to county-controlled projects and is tied to a water impact study being carried
04:05out by the Ohio EPA and the Oakey Regional Council,
04:10with results expected in November.
04:12In other words, the county has decided it wants hard numbers on regional water supply before it decides whether
04:20giant cooling-hungry facilities belong there.
04:24The approach is spreading across Ohio,
04:26where townships and even the city of Cleveland have turned to temporary freezes as a way to gather
04:33information.
04:34Rather than banning data centers outright,
04:37Warren County is buying time,
04:39betting that independent data on water will guide better decisions than the promises developers
04:45make in public hearings.
04:49State and local legislators are taking notice.
04:52But turning that attention into law is proving messy.
04:56In Arkansas,
04:57the Pulaski County Quorum Court passed new data center regulations 11-4 on September 23rd.
05:05The rules would require developers to submit electrical load analyses,
05:11water and wastewater plans,
05:13land use studies and decommissioning plans,
05:16and to show they will not materially impair the utilities serving nearby properties.
05:22Days later,
05:24County Judge Barry Hyde vetoed the ordinance,
05:27saying the question is whether it can be lawfully,
05:30fairly and effectively administered without exposing the county to unnecessary legal
05:35and financial risk.
05:38Overriding a veto takes nine votes.
05:41And the measure's sponsor,
05:43Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood,
05:45says she will pursue one.
05:47The stakes are real.
05:49With the AVAIO digital campus and a Google project at the port of Little Rock,
05:54both planned in the
05:55area.
05:56Yet despite that regulatory wave,
06:00construction is pressing forward.
06:03In Schuylkill County,
06:04Pennsylvania,
06:06Klein Township supervisors voted unanimously to approve an Amazon Web Services data center
06:12campus.
06:13On about 350 acres near Route 309 and Interstate 81,
06:19with roughly 2 million square feet of data center structures,
06:24residents raised concerns about noise.
06:27Blasting and water use.
06:28And the township responded by adding pre-blasting and post-blasting survey conditions to the
06:34approval.
06:36Amazon had bought the land,
06:38known as Devil's Mountain,
06:40from Brewster Development for $186 million.
06:43The vote is a reminder that in communities willing to say yes,
06:49projects still move ahead quickly.
06:51And the margins can be lopsided in either direction.
06:55Nearby,
06:56North Point Development has also purchased 1,400 acres atop Treskow Mountain.
07:02So the coal region of Pennsylvania may be only at the beginning of its data center story.
07:09Further west,
07:11Texas shows how large the next wave could be.
07:14Crusoe has filed plans for a $4.8 billion data center campus in Jaden,
07:20in Kent County,
07:22made up of two buildings of about 759,000 square feet each.
07:27Construction is slated to begin at the end of January 2027,
07:32with the buildings entering operation in May and July of 2029.
07:37The Jaden site is described as a spur of Project Hyper,
07:42tied to Crusoe's larger Childress development.
07:45And together the two sites represent roughly $12 billion of investment.
07:51The Childress campus is a 1.4 gigawatt facility developed with Lancium,
07:57with behind-the-meter solar and energy storage and closed-loop cooling designed to limit water.
08:03Consumption
08:04Crusoe's Texas campuses have been associated with hyperscale customers including Meta,
08:11Microsoft,
08:12Google and OpenAI.
08:14And the financial commitment behind this industry is now being used to win over skeptics.
08:20On October 2nd,
08:22Amazon Web Services announced a pledge of more than $1 billion over five years for
08:28communities that host its data centers.
08:31A program called Built Together
08:33It includes more than $100 million for community college endowments.
08:39Coverage of out-of-pocket costs for about 300,000 students.
08:4416 additional skills training centers.
08:48And efficiency upgrades for more than 300 schools and community buildings and 30,000 homes.
08:55AWS chief executive Matt Garman warned that if local restrictions are enacted,
09:01the United States could be writing its own losing ticket to the AI race.
09:06The pledge equals roughly one-tenth of one percent of Amazon's projected $220 billion
09:13annual capital spending,
09:15while an August poll found 63% of Americans oppose data centers in their communities.
09:22of the United States.
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