Why Data Centers Keep Facing Public Backlash

Of course we not all that long ago saw the big battle over the Google data center that ultimately got pulled that will come back in all likelihood, but it got pulled. There's another data center proposed on the East side of Indianapolis. And it is from a company called California based Metroblocks, and they want to build a 1000, 154,000 square foot facility in the Martindale, Brightwood neighborhood. It's currently an empty lot. It is currently, uh, it needs to be zoned properly. And this is where these data centers have to come in front of the government, which gives the people the opportunity to have a voice, to try to fight back. If you don't get the zoning change, you can't get the data center. And I'm going to get data centers in a second, but I want to give you some facts on this. So the Indianapolis department of metropolitan, uh, the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development Commission has delayed a vote on this. So that's the first step before it's got to ultimately go to the city county council. It's the first hurdle they've got to get through and they have delayed this for 30 days at the request of Ron Gibson, a member of the Indianapolis city county council. Now I want to read you Gibson's quote, according to, to WRTV 6, and then we'll get into the data centers, because this is very interesting. He said, quote, "We'll work very hard in the next 30 days to try and inform the community more about the benefits of this project." Let me read that to you again, cause it's very important. "We'll work very hard in the next 30 days to try and inform the community more about the benefits of this project." This is why people hate the data centers. This is why people are against the data centers. Number one, they don't understand them and two, they don't see benefit. People don't understand them and they don't see benefit. I am not anti data center guy. Now I know you guys know I've been critical of them. I'm not anti data center guy. I understand what I'm doing right now based around a data center. I'm not naive. I am using the service. We are, you are consuming information on that service. What I have concerns about one is how it infects the environment to the people around it and the lack of security on things like power bills, water usage, water rates, I have concerns about those. And I have concerns about the incentives that are coming with the data centers and a lack of a clear financial perspective being relayed to the community. I had a long conversation with a person who is in the communications business, who does work with the data centers. I've told this story on the radio before. This is not that long ago. So when this may be, it was right before, before I ended my time there. And this person called me and said, let's talk about data centers. And he said, help me understand the public opposition in hopes that we can better communicate to the public. And what I told him is this, I said, you will never sell the public on data centers until the public one fully understands them and two, the benefits of those data centers being a part of the community, primarily from a financial perspective are laid out. And the problem with these data centers is they are not communicating well. They're not communicating properly. They're getting these things to these government boards before they have community buy-in. And when these things get to these government boards who make the decisions before there's a community understanding and a community buy-in, public goes into crisis mode, they go into panic mode because they see the timer, right? They see the timer ticking. They feel like, oh my gosh, this is happening quick. And I gotta, I gotta, I gotta do something. Well, that's going to cause people to lash out. That's going to cause people to panic. It's going to cause people sometimes to behave in a, in a, what some might see as an irrational way. There's nothing wrong with it though. If you're doing that, because if you don't understand something and you feel like somebody's putting a gun to your head, not literally, but you know, figuratively, right? In terms of they're trying to ram this thing through the hourglass is ticking. The sand is coming down on the hour hourglass. You're going to lash out the data centers and governments because the data centers and governments are working together have done a terrible job of allowing the public into the process before they begin the process itself. What I mean by that is the data center people should be before they ever go to a board and commission before they even even dream of taking a first step. Should say, we are having this community meeting to hear from you, to understand what your concerns are, to lay out to you what we see as the benefits are with government sign off on this is the dollar amounts that are going to be flowing in and the other benefits. And then we'd like to hear from you. If you think those benefits are good enough, if you think the benefits need to be different, if you think they need to be more, the data center people could save them because look data centers are going to be a part of the future, there's no doubt about that. My opposition to data centers is not that they shouldn't exist. It's that the incentives don't match the unknown and there's more unknown, at least to the public, then there is benefit. One of the problems with data centers is they've done a lot of it in secrecy because they're leveraging communities against each other in part. And when you do things in secrecy, you give the government the information, but not the public. I think that's part of the reason the government gets more okay with the data centers than the public does. Because the government gets information that other people do not. Economic development is about relationships. It's one of my major, major issues with the IEDC, the Indian Economic Development Corporation, they do all of this stuff shrouded in secrecy, shrouded in mystery, sign this NDA. You can't talk about this. We don't give you information on that. Some deals that may be good get soured on by the public because the IEDC is seen as the shadow government entity that hides, that hides things from people, that is shifty by its very nature. It poisons the well. Think about in your own life, anything you engage in, any financial decision, any purchase you make, would you make it if you didn't have a clear picture? If you were looking for, I'll just pick something here. If you were looking for car insurance and your agent came to you or your, your, your, your agent came to you and said, pay this. Okay. Well, what am I getting for that? Well, I don't have to tell you that. This is what you pay for car insurance. Well, yeah, but like, I want to know my, my coverage. Is there a better provider out there? Is there a better option? Can I get more for less? What's the benefit to me? What's the benefit to me? Doesn't matter. Here's what you pay for your car insurance. This is the deal. How would you respond to that? You wouldn't pay it, right? You would be outraged about that. You'd probably look for a new insurance agent, customer service connection. Mutual benefit is a huge part of any economic development deal. And really every purchase you make is an economic development deal. Think about anything you buy, you go to the store. I want this widget because I need this widget for my house. Okay. I get the widget, house is better off part in the house, whatever you need the widget for better off. Store gets money. They're better off. It's a, it's a mutual bit of it's the, the, a transaction is mutually beneficial. The public does not see the data center transaction is mutually beneficial. Sure. They want the stuff the data center has to offer, but they say not in my backyard. And that could be rectified if there was much more transparency from the data center people and community buy-in from the data center people from the get go. Look, you're going to get some people that are always going to be against the data centers. They're going to use the data center product, right? But they're going to be against the data centers. You're never going to win those people. But there are a lot of reasonable people in the communities. Who are open to the data centers. If they see a tangible benefit to the community right now, the perception is huge benefit to the data centers, huge benefits to the government. What's my benefit? I don't see it. And until that is rectified data centers like this one proposed on the east side are going to continue to have to face intense pushback across our state.