Pennsylvania AI Data Center Developer Asked Trump Administration Official to Help Loosen Toxic Emissions Limits
Pennsylvania real estate executive Brian O’Neill sought the help of an attorney at the United States Department of State to lobby state and federal officials to waive national federal air pollution limits on his proposed gas-fired power plants in the Philadelphia suburbs, emails obtained via a public records request show. The power plants are crucial components of O’Neill’s plans to […]
How Pennsylvania Governor’s Office Helped Push for Huge Data Centers in the Philadelphia Suburbs
Freedom Hall, packed with more than 200 people, was jammed to capacity. Hundreds more people gathered in the lobby in stifling heat, many wearing “No Data Centers” stickers on their T-shirts. Inside the meeting room, Pennsylvania real estate executive Brian O’Neill was presenting plans for an enormous data center complex to the Upper Merion Township Planning Commission. […]
How Data Center Developers Staked Their Claim in Rural Georgia
Jacqueline Lassetter wanted to see America’s biggest data center. So one day in July last year, at the age of 78, she jumped into a car with her daughter, Daphne, and headed west across the muddy Chattahoochee River, leaving their wooded Georgia home for the Nevada desert. A week later, she was standing in front of the […]
Pennsylvania Town Votes Buzzer-Beater ‘No’ on Data Center Mega-Project
Council members in Archbald, Pennsylvania, have voted down Texas-based Provident Realty Advisors’ application to build a giant data center after months of growing public outcry against plans to build several of the computing facilities in the borough of about 7,500 people. About 200 local residents showed up for the March 27 special meeting held at 1 […]
Data Centers Are Poised to Engulf a Pennsylvania Town
On a chilly Monday just before Thanksgiving, residents of Archbald, Pennsylvania hurried from work in the fading autumn light to snag seats in the old brick Borough Building for a 5 p.m. council meeting. After the roughly 50 seats quickly filled, people continued to pack the room, standing along the walls or wedging themselves into the remaining floor space. […]
Behind Closed Doors, Georgia County Rewrote Data Center Rules
On the cusp of a December 16 county hearing in Georgia on a proposed law to regulate the booming data center industry, documents uncovered by DeSmog reveal that lobbyists continued to influence county leaders to revise planning regulations in favor of developers. Over the past year, Coweta County, about 40 miles southwest of Atlanta, has […]
Developers Push Huge Server Farm in Another Rural Georgia County
A county in rural Georgia is due to hold a crucial vote on a proposal to build one of the world’s largest and most power-hungry data centers on Thursday, just a few weeks after the plans were made public. The five commissioners in Twiggs County will meet to consider an application submitted last month by […]
Georgia County Puts Off Key Data Center Vote After Public Backlash
Commissioners in a Georgia county unanimously decided to delay a vote on contentious new rules governing massive data center projects, during a meeting that drew an unusual overflow crowd. Dozens of local residents packed the Commissioner Chambers in Newnan, 40 miles southwest of Atlanta, with more standing outside. Many wore red to show their unified opposition […]
Data Center Lobbyists Clear the Way for Mega-Projects in Rural Georgia
County commissioners in Georgia may pave the way for a $17 billion “hyperscale” data center on Tuesday by adopting new planning laws shaped by industry lobbyists. If passed, the latest draft of the laws will ease requirements for “Project Sail” — a proposed data center in a rural area of Coweta County, 40 miles southwest of Atlanta — relative […]