'Get informed': Participants in data center discussion stress importance of involvement on issue

OGDEN — Amid intense debate around Utah about data center development, members of a panel that convened to discuss the topic are variously recommending public involvement, warning of disinformation and expressing reticence about granting project developers public incentives.

"Get informed, find good sources, question things and participate because that's what's going to make it work," said William Olson, an entrepreneur and founder of Weber County Conservatives. "Let's keep the dialogue open. Disagreement is good to find the right answers that we need."

The Olene Walker Institute of Politics and Public Service at Weber State University in Ogden and Americans for Prosperity in Utah, a conservative organization that stresses limited government, organized the discussion. It featured a cross-section of panelists, though a sentiment of support for data centers seemed to prevail, and it came as varied data center proposals around Utah prompted strong debate, including plans in Juab, Box Elder and Utah counties.

Uriah Kennedy of the conservative God and Country podcast offered a general defense of data centers amid the strong backlash they get from some, warning of disinformation. While some critics worry about the potential environmental impact of data centers, including the water they need to operate and potential heat dissipation if accompanied by power-generating facilities, defenders tout their import, particularly in national defense.

"Hopefully this discussion will show you exactly why data centers are a good thing," Kennedy said. "There's a lot of bad information around them and misinformation around them."

Closed-loop cooling systems limit the water data centers use, he said, while stressing the importance of data centers in helping power artificial intelligence and in keeping the United States ahead of China.

"There is literally an AI race going on right now," Kennedy said. "Who's going to develop AI faster, be better at it? And the United States has to dominate that. We have to leave China in the dust."

Ingrid Bettridge, another voice involved with the God and Country podcast, said the public should benefit in some fashion from development of data centers, perhaps through redevelopment in their communities brought on by the revenue such facilities generate.

Data Centers are "making a lot of money. What are taxpayers getting? How are they benefiting from the millions of dollars that are going to go through there? So that should be part of the public discussion," she said.

The public, moreover, should play a key role in whether and where data centers take root in the first place.

"The public gets to decide whether they want it in your backyard or not. It's got to go somewhere. But if that area and those people who are part of that government, whether it be county or city, don't want it, then it shouldn't be forced upon them. It can go somewhere else," she said.

Data centers 'need to pay their way'

Tyson Reese, engagement director with Americans for Prosperity in Utah, doesn't think data centers should be able to tap into public funding to aid their development if they're unable to otherwise operate in the black.

Data centers "really need to pay their way. I am not a believer that data centers should be subsidized by taxpayers," he said. He wouldn't necessarily oppose some sort of tax break for operations that at least break even but isn't seeing enough public debate on the issue.

While debate on data centers may be intense, Debbie Dujanovic, a former investigative journalist and host at KSL, said more data center proposals are likely in the offing. She stressed the importance among the public of keeping tabs on local government and paying close attention to the language on meeting agendas, should a proposal come to the fore.

Frequently, public meeting announcements "don't say data center on the agenda, so you might not know until the decision is so far down the road, and then you find out about it from your neighbor," she said. Be involved, she suggested, and know what's happening at the local level, at, say, local planning commission meetings.

More generally, more information is needed on the potential impact of data centers and artificial intelligence, even as its use becomes increasingly more commonplace.

"I think there's just a lot of unknowns and we need some real answers," she said.

Kaile Akina, community and engagement manager for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, or HEAL Utah, an environmental group, also emphasized the need among the public to ask questions and be involved. More particularly, she wonders what sorts of regulations data centers face in the event of some sort of accident or disaster.

"With the speed of these things, of data centers that are being built, what regulations are we skipping and where does that cost us later down the road?" Akina said.

Related topics