00:00A Kansas town is in open revolt against a 1,000-acre gas-powered data center, and the fight has
00:07already cost a county commission chair his gavel.
00:11Georgia votes tomorrow on a 300-acre campus, and Arizona's data center ban is under legal attack.
00:19A Kansas town is in open revolt, and it has already produced a political casualty.
00:26In Tonganoxie, in Leavenworth County, about 150 residents rallied against Project Bluestem, a proposed hyperscale data center campus on roughly
00:371,000 acres that would include its own gas power plant.
00:42Days earlier, on September 30, the county commission voted 3-2 to remove Mike Steben as chair.
00:50At an earlier commissioner meeting, more than 1,000 neighbors packed the room.
00:56Organizer Rebecca Davis told the crowd that 7 out of 10 Americans do not want a data center in their
01:03community,
01:04and resident Tyler Romans called the fight a microcosm of broader American politics.
01:10Steben told supporters he believes they are going to win this.
01:15The backdrop is Kansas Senate Bill 98, which provides tax breaks for data centers.
01:22Georgia faces its own showdown, and the vote comes tomorrow.
01:27Rockdale County commissioners will decide on October 6 that the Assembly Hall in Conyers weather
01:33to rezone nearly 300 acres of mostly residential land for a data center campus proposed by M Acquisitions.
01:43With more than $1 billion in planned investment, the applicant is asking for two rezonings,
01:49one covering about 253 acres along Farmer Road and Irwin Bridge Road,
01:55and another covering about 19 acres on Rockbridge Road.
02:00Both the Planning Commission and county staff have recommended denial.
02:04The debate has been sharply divided over taxes, water use, noise and weather neighbors were properly notified.
02:12Attorney Michelle Battle argued the project is not subject to the county's newer standards because
02:18it applied under the old development ordinance.
02:23That opposition is now meeting a legal counterattack in Arizona.
02:28Pima County supervisors voted 3-2 for a four-month moratorium on new data center development.
02:36The maximum allowed by state law.
02:38With one possible extension, Supervisor Jennifer Allen said the county's zoning code
02:44simply does not address data center issues, like water, energy, noise and distance from homes.
02:52And officials expect to finish zoning updates by year's end.
02:56Now the Goldwater Institute says the pause is illegal,
03:00arguing it violates Arizona's Private Property Protection Act,
03:04which voters passed in 2006.
03:07Attorney John Riches wrote that state law does not authorize a county to halt lawful development.
03:14Merely because officials wish to study an industry.
03:18Supervisors Steve Christie and Rex Scott, who voted no,
03:23warned of costly lawsuits and said construction crews would likely leave during the delay.
03:29And the reason this fight keeps gaining momentum comes down to one thing.
03:34Whether the grid can keep up.
03:36On October 1st, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted 4-0
03:42to advance proposed rules for managing large electricity loads during supply shortfalls.
03:49Under the plan, large new loads that have not secured enough new electric capacity would be curtailed
03:56before other customers in an emergency utilities would have to keep registries of large loads,
04:03set procedures for reducing demand, and could not classify data centers as critical exempt loads.
04:10The move follows a September Commission study warning that rapid data center growth could create
04:16serious reliability risks with model 2030 risk potentially six times above PJM's planning standard.
04:26Public comments are open for 30 days after publication,
04:29and a final order could come on January 28, 2027.
04:35The pressure on the grid is only half the story, because water tells the other half.
04:42In Arizona, the Casa Grande Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 on October 2nd to approve the
04:49Grande Valley Data Center, a 954-acre project with a battery facility and natural gas generation.
04:57It would use 300-acre-feet of water a year, about 97 million gallons.
05:04And the developer says bloom energy fuel cells mean no connection to the state grid.
05:10A water district representative told the commission that his members convey water for agricultural
05:16land and are in a drought amid Colorado river cuts.
05:21Ten of about 11 public speakers opposed the project.
05:24The developer projects 445 permanent jobs averaging $108,000 and $280 million in annual tax revenue.
05:36State and local officials are taking notice.
05:40And Illinois shows how quickly caution is spreading.
05:44McHenry County is weighing a 12-month freeze on new data center applications in unincorporated
05:50areas.
05:57The county relies exclusively on groundwater aquifers for municipal and domestic supply and has
06:07tracked levels through 37 monitoring wells operated with the U.S. Geological Survey since
06:152009, a committee votes Tuesday in Woodstock.
06:19With a full board vote expected in November, board member Joe Gottemaler said data centers will
06:25be coming regardless.
06:27So proactive regulation makes sense.
06:30Statewide, lawmakers failed to pass the Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers Act this spring.
06:38And Governor Pritzker paused the state's data center investment program in July.
06:45Yet despite that regulatory wave, construction is pressing forward.
06:50And Michigan just cleared a major hurdle.
06:53The Michigan Public Service Commission unanimously approved conditional DTE energy contracts to
06:59power Google's 1-Gigawatt data center on 282 acres in Van Buren Township, north of Interstate 94 between
07:09Hagerty Road and Interstate 275.
07:13The 20-year contract requires Google to pay for at least 80% of its monthly billing.
07:19Demand and includes a termination payment guaranteeing at least 15 years of charges.
07:24It also requires Google to pay for development of up to 1600 megawatts of renewable energy and
07:33480 megawatts of battery storage through DTE.
07:37The facility is expected to begin service in December 2027 and reach maximum load by December
07:452028, making it one of the largest projects in the state.
07:50And the financial incentives behind that construction are staggering.
07:55And still contested, the same week, the Wayne County Commission voted to override County Executive
08:02Warren Evans veto of a tax exemption for Google's Van Buren Township project, a break that saves
08:09the company more than $125 million.
08:13The override cleared the way for the 1-Gigawatt campus even as state regulators wrestled with
08:19how to shield other customers from its costs.
08:24Commissioner Catherine Peretic of the Public Service Commission asked how to make sure existing
08:29customers are protected, and Attorney General Dana Nessel had pushed for a 90% minimum billing
08:36demand to guard against stranded assets.
08:40DTE spokesperson Ryan Lowry said Michiganders expect the utility to keep the lights on, keep
08:48bills as low as possible, and put their interests first.
09:07I will HQ in the future.
09:11OK.
09:11Now there's going to be a deal together ofoplanets.
09:11Thank you, sir.
09:12I will try to apply for that.
09:12I will try to pump and advance the uphill trail.Team
09:12that can look at the quality time. I have already seen people
09:12You
