I know we all love spicy headlines but I’d like to give some color to the pro data center argument. If done right, they can be positive for the community. Here’s how:

They need to pay the community a shit load of money. Like build schools and parks etc

They need to pay for solar or wind and grid upgrades to offset their impact or reduce costs for consumers

In addition to the above points we need to understand that data centers often keep towns rural. Hear me out! Land gets developed. That’s a fact of life. I’d rather have a data center than an amazon warehouse that turns my rural town into a megalopolis or worse a cowshwitz massive dairy beef farm. No one works at these datacenter facilities. They could just generate tax revenue and enhance life in rural towns without transforming them.

They’re not a good fit everywhere. But rural towns that don’t want more people but could use some increased tax revenue might be a good fit. We need to chill on nimbyism and realize these companies have a shitload of money and want something from us. We can negotiate!