Dr. Jacoby Wilson

Some benefits may be going to the counties, but limited benefits go to the actual defense line community who's hosting the operation, who's being impacted by air pollution, who's being impacted by the water pollution, right?

So they're internalizing all the externalities, but they're not getting any of the benefits.

So that's a distributional justice issue again.

Yeah, I think they should look at our joint report with NWCP, our data center report.

It would be great.

You can go to CEEJH.org to download the report.

There's a number of recommendations related to air quality, water quality, energy issues,

But I would say talk to your mayor, your county executive, the county council.

Your planning commission has a huge role in pushing these data centers or any type of industrial development through.

So I would say try to get a moratorium in first and then work with the folks in leadership to make sure there's a data center ordinance established.

And it makes sure that ordinance covers the types of data centers that you want to bring in, the size of data centers.

Like we do not want hyperscale data centers in our community.

So we have some frameworks, some restrictions, some boundaries on the types of data centers.

There's setback distances, right?

The type of water they use, the insurance that they use, renewables.

making sure they're not going to add to the heat issues, so any climate impacts, making sure they also have monitoring, addressing tax subsidy reform, that they cannot tax breaks, you know, subsidizing them.

So there's a number of things you can do to put into the ordinance or into the county's development plan.

Maybe even put this in the comprehensive plan, in the master plan for your county or your city, having some language in the code about data centers.

So baking it in so if there's a data center that comes in, then you're not going to get caught off guard.

So just to recap, talk to your local officials, making sure they know what you want to see, having a moratorium, developing an ordinance, and adding some language in your comprehensive plan or your master plan