Editorial:
Public concern over proposed data centers is understandable. Questions about energy consumption, water use, noise, land use and tax incentives deserve careful scrutiny. Communities should ask hard questions before approving any major industrial development.
But there is an irony that often goes unmentioned.
Many of the loudest critics of data centers are expressing their opposition on Facebook, posting videos to YouTube, organizing through email, signing online petitions, commenting on news websites and debating the issue using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT. Every one of those activities depends on the very infrastructure they oppose.
The internet is often thought of as something abstract — a “cloud” that simply exists. It doesn’t. Every email, every photo uploaded from a smartphone, every streaming movie, every online banking transaction and every GPS route requires a physical place where computers store, process and transmit information. Those places are data centers.
As our dependence on digital technology has grown, so has the need for computing power. Artificial intelligence, cloud storage, online education, telemedicine, remote work and countless other services have dramatically increased demand. The digital economy cannot function without expanding the physical infrastructure that supports it.
That doesn’t mean every proposed data center belongs in every community.
Location matters. Environmental impacts matter. Electrical capacity matters. Communities have every right to insist on responsible planning, adequate buffering, reliable emergency services, transparent agreements and fair taxation. Developers should have to demonstrate that a project benefits the community as well as their shareholders.
What deserves criticism is not thoughtful opposition based on facts. It is the expectation that someone else’s community should always bear the burden.
This is hardly unique to data centers. Society wants electricity but often opposes power plants. We want fast shipping but resist distribution warehouses. We enjoy reliable cell service while objecting to cellular towers. We expect instant package delivery while complaining about truck traffic. We demand clean water, dependable sewer systems and abundant electricity, yet frequently resist the infrastructure required to provide them.
Data centers are simply the newest example of this contradiction.
The conversation should not be framed as whether we need data centers. We already do. Every day, nearly every person connected to modern life relies on them, often without realizing it.
The real question is where they should be built, how they should operate and what standards they should meet.
Reasonable people can disagree about a particular proposal. They can debate zoning, environmental protections, tax abatements and economic benefits. Those are legitimate public policy discussions.
But pretending we can enjoy all the conveniences of the digital age while rejecting the infrastructure that makes those conveniences possible ignores an undeniable reality.
The internet is not magic. It lives in buildings filled with servers.
And every time we log on to complain about data centers, we’re proving exactly why they exist.
-RSA
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