Data centers have a bad rap right now. They earned it.
The rapid spread of the energy-consuming, water-gulping, land-grabbing plants has caught residents and politicians alike off guard, all around the country. That was the plan. They have expanded stealthily and often well out of the public purview, sometimes with politicians’ clandestine assistance, until they just pop up as done deals. That often leaves locals sputtering in surprise and dismay, but well after the fact.
The data center developers’ machinations have left them behind the messaging eightball, and that’s in large part because their opaque process has angered people who might otherwise support economic expansion in communities that desperately need it.
Data centers have managed something that seems almost impossible these days: they have united people from every part of the political spectrum against them.
There is some argument that the centers provide construction jobs. Maybe, for a while, for a handful of local people. Then the construction is done, the work goes away and the centers operate with minimal human presence, while spreading over the landscape like mutant shopping malls. Meanwhile, they devour local resources and can reasonably be blamed for driving utility prices up as well as diminishing the overall quality of life.
Is that going to be the cost of accommodating the AI/high tech/bitcoin monstrosity that is steamrolling through the economy and the culture? And once we have paid that cost, what are we left with? Something ugly, and hostile to human concerns.
It might be expected that in one of the state’s poorest counties, the prospect of data centers might be greeted with at least some enthusiasm. Whatever that support amounts to, it is being drowned out by an overwhelming negative sentiment, as expressed in public hearing and written comments solicited by the Okanogan County Planning Commission. Does “hell, no” capture it? Barely.
As reported in the Methow Valley News last week, nearly 200 people submitted written comments, and dozens more packed a public hearing to warn about the potential negative impacts of data centers on the county’s economy and environment. In addition to zoning changes, Okanogan County has proposed definitions for data centers, high-intensity computing use, server farms, and cryptocurrency mining operations.
As reporter Marcy Stamper noted in our story, “Pushback against data centers has been growing nationwide, with three in four Americans saying they’d oppose one in their community, according to a recent poll. Many jurisdictions have issued moratoriums.” In November, the Okanogan County Public Utility District commissioners put a moratorium on electric-service applications for high-density loads including data centers and cryptocurrency operations.
The data center controversy has forced many politicians to do-si-do around the tough questions they’re facing from attentive constituents or, particularly this year, engaged voters. Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat recently quoted the Democratic candidate for the 4th Congressional District seat, John Duresky, as saying, “I will tell you, having talked to the voters, that data centers are radioactive right now.” Not literally, but politically.
“I’m really struggling with this issue,” Duresky told Westneat. “People are strongly against them right now, but at the same time, parts of my coalition are very pro-data center, such as the labor unions. They want the jobs.”
Duresky’s Republican opponent, Amanda McKinney, has been quoted as saying that “local communities should decide” whether data centers get built. Except that local communities do not exist in a vacuum.
There is a lot of talk about the inevitably of data centers. Maybe so, but their developers have a lot of work to do to improve their optics, and it won’t happen without certifiable transparency.
Okanogan County may be acting in time to moderate or at least mitigate the impact of data centers. There are still questions to be posed and answered, including how local inclinations will be weighed against countywide or even statewide considerations. It is encouraging that so many people are paying close attention, and letting their thoughts be known. Keep up that momentum.
