While developers try to persuade local governments to allow data center construction, advocates said data centers are a raw deal for rural communities in North Carolina.
Opponents frequently point to the facilities’ water usage, noise pollution and carbon emissions as concerns, especially when it comes to the health of surrounding communities. According to the Pew Research Center, more than two-thirds of proposed projects are in rural areas.
North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill to repeal tax breaks for data center developments.
Rania Masri, co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, said data center projects are not a given and grassroots organizers can win against large corporations.
"We are seeing a beautiful, spontaneous uprising of communities against Big Oil and Big Tech, and saying ‘no’ to these data centers," Masri explained. "This is not an inevitable fight. We see them for what they are: an extractive industry that is giving nothing back."
Proponents of data center developments often point to job creation and tax dollars going to cities and towns but opponents pointed out most of the job creation comes from data center construction, which ends once the facilities are built.
Rural community leaders have started running against politicians who support data center development.
David Batts, Democratic nominee for Edgecombe County Commissioner District 6, handily defeated a four-term incumbent who was supportive of data center developments in the Democratic primary. Batts said he feels such a development would not be good for his community of Kingsboro, where a $19 billion data center campus has been proposed.
"Data centers, they take, take, take," Batts asserted. "They don’t give that much back. They are all about business for them. We are just not comfortable with that at this point. We need technologies, because our kids are going to need a lot of technology in the years to come. But it’s just not a good fit for Kingsboro."
In rural Northampton County, county commissioners passed a 32-month moratorium on data center developments, the longest moratorium of any community in the Tar Heel State.
Source: Public News Service
