By Mike Tony
For HDMedia
Google applied to West Virginia to have the state certify a planned Putnam County project as a “High-Impact” data center exempt from a broad range of local regulations Tuesday, according to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office.
Just 72 hours later, Morrisey already had announced that Google had not only purchased land in Putnam County but received the state’s approval for what he said would be a multibillion-dollar project.
That quick turnaround is what Morrisey has called “speed to power,” his emphasis on ushering in data center development throughout West Virginia to boost what he has framed as a quest for global supremacy over China and other countries to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure.
But what Morrisey calls speed to power with an eye on the global stage, community and environmental advocates back home say is speed to leaving them powerless.
“This morning, two people in our network learned at the same time as the rest of us that this new data center project was announced in Putnam County, close to their homes,” West Virginia Environmental Council president Quenton King told the Gazette-Mail Friday afternoon.
King called Morrisey’s Google data center project announcement “another example of the lack of transparency we’ve been shouting from the rooftops” since last year’s introduction of House Bill 2014, a law the state Legislature passed in April at Morrisey’s request that stripped local control from officials throughout the state and shields developers from having to share critical information about their planned projects publicly.
HB 2014 is designed to fast-track in-state data center development in part by prohibiting counties and municipalities from enforcing or adopting regulations that limit creation, development or operation of any state-certified high-impact data center project.
HB 2014 also required most of the property tax revenue the projects would generate from local taxing bodies, a move estimated to cost counties and school districts millions.
The law deems confidential all petitions seeking certification of a high-impact data center, which could be any data storage or equipment facility with a critical power demand of at least 90 megawatts.
HB 2014 mandates that any information provided by a data center that it identifies as confidential business information is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. The law requires the Department of Commerce secretary to make available to the governor and Legislature a list of all certified high-impact data centers “and all relevant information,” with specifically identifying information to be removed to ensure confidentiality.
On Friday, Governor’s Office spokesperson Lars Dalseide cited that law in an email to contend that disclosure of what land and how much was purchased for the planned Google project was prevented by the law.
Dalseide also cited state code holding that “[a]ny documentary material, data or other writing made or received by” any “public body whose primary responsibility is economic development, for the purpose of furnishing assistance to a new or existing business” as confidential.
Details on Google’s plans for the project were vastly outnumbered by questions left unanswered by the Governor’s Office, the tech giant and other officials Friday, fueling community advocate concerns that the Morrisey administration’s welcome mat rollout for resource-ravenous data centers will leave West Virginians living in project areas trampled underneath.
“Nobody in the town wants [a data center],” Melanie Lacy said on Friday. Her family owns two properties in Buffalo adjacent to the Google land purchase. She’s lived there for 12 years.
“What are we supposed to do? No one’s getting any answers. I don’t want my grandkids [living] here [if a data center is built],” she said. “I wish it could be on a ballot. It’s going to affect the whole county.”
Others agree that more information is needed.
“As this moves forward, the next good-faith step is transparency and accountability,” Dani Parent, executive director of West Virginia Citizen Action Group, told the Gazette-Mail Friday. “Communities deserve to understand the impacts and have a voice in the process.”
Questions left unanswered
A Putnam County Clerk’s Office representative said Friday the office had not yet received a deed filing from Google. A Google spokesperson identified the property near the Kanawha River as 22272 Charleston Road, slightly north of Buffalo, a town of more than 1,000 people.
The Google spokesperson said the company closed on the land this week and that it was too early to say:
- How much and what kind of power would be used for the project
- Whether there would be any renewable energy-related requirements or goals linked to the project
- How much water Google plans to consume
Energy needs of large data centers also can strain the power grid. Constructing new fossil-fuel plants to fulfill that demand is expected to increase carbon dioxide emissions and further drive harmful climate change.
Read more from HDMedia, here
