Are we losing the data center battle?
I’m sure you’ve seen story after story of local communities fighting data centers. Concerned citizens are fighting valiantly, but they are fighting on too many fronts.
Source: You can’t make this up. This is an image supplied to AZ Central from the Vermaland project. The image is not of the actual proposal, rather an AI generated suggestion of what it might look like.
Big Data is pushing through a 33,000-acre data center in Pinal County, called Vermaland. They like to tout that they will have a utility-scale solar facility for power, but brush past the fact that they will be adding yet another water-sucking, polluting, gas-fired power plant.
The 432,000 square foot Chandler data center was being pushed by at least one former elected official, who is definitely “not lobbying” less than one year after her cushy government job ended. That plan went down in digital flames last Thursday night.
My favorite quote from the city council hearing was this, “I ... have no interest in being threatened by the former senator …." Prior to making it to the city council, the project was approved 5 t-o 1 by the planning commission, but rejected by the full board.
And you’ve probably heard about the Project Blue data center in Tucson. Citizens opposed it at the city and the county and then the all-GOP Arizona Corporation Commission approved it. So much for local control.
But these are just the highlights and a preview of what is to come.
Arizona currently has 164 data centers, the 7th highest in the nation.
A bi-partisan, but dispersed battle
There are brave people in all these areas who are mobilizing. What is most remarkable is how bi-partisan the resistance is. A quick survey of resistance efforts across the state and the country make it clear that people of all political leanings oppose these behemoths.
Source: AZ Central.
But we have a problem here. There are too many people being forced to fight on too many fronts. And, as seen in the Tucson example, when community members have a win at the city level, the developers simply run to the county and later the the Corporation Commission as a work-around to allow TEP to construct a 350MW gas-fired power plant that will be used exclusively by the facility.
It’s whack-a-mole, and the public loses out. The ACC and their utilities are dismissive of their concerns.
Data centers are here to stay, but they don’t need to be so reckless.
We should have a unified voice to require (1) all data centers use internal, closed loop cooling instead of evaporative cooling and (2) all data centers should be responsible to build their own clean energy power resources, rather than shifting construction and water mining costs on to other customers.
Where we need to take the fight
2026 is bringing two major elections that could not only create accountability, but may also provide an issue around which Arizona residents of all political stripes can unify.
Of course you know I’m going to tell you that we need to mobilize around the SRP board election on April 7th. If you are new to this blog because you’ve been fighting data centers in other areas of the state, have a look at my quick summary of the really strange and exclusive voting SRP voting system.
And, we all should know that the Arizona Corporation Commission elections are coming next November.
We need all these various community leaders around the state, who are valiantly fighting against the odds, to join together for these two elections.
You can help my campaign for SRP District 6 Board here.
You can learn about the two new candidate for SRP District 6 Council here.
You can learn about the SRP Clean Team here.