Shown is an Amazon Web Services data center located near single-family homes. (Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Ohio lawmakers appear ready to establish a up-to-date commission to study data centers. Business groups believe this could vindicate the industry, while ordinary Ohioans worry that time is running out to stop the state’s already out-of-control data center expansion.
And if there was any doubt that data centers would be a major campaign issue in this year’s elections, two political candidates recently took the opportunity to criticize lawmakers for not doing more.
After a House committee voted to approve the proposal on Tuesday, it appears the bill will likely go before the full chamber on Wednesday.
What does the examination look like?
Ohio Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said the motive behind the study commission is the opposite of that underlying much of the legislation.
“Typically, when we have legislation, we start with a response,” Click said. “It’s like we know that this is the answer to this problem, but the commission starts with questions: what problems do we face? So let’s collect all the data and then we will write something.
Click is a co-sponsor Ohio House Bill 646 with Ohio State Rep. Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk.
Their proposal would establish a 13-person analytical commission, consisting mainly of state representatives and senators. A last-minute amendment changed the composition of the committee. The changes require specialist substantive knowledge from members, but potentially weaken the representation of minority parties.
Gov. Mike Dewine can appoint three members, and the Speaker of the House and the Senate president receive five appointees each.
The latest version of the act requires candidates to become familiar with, among others: with data center operations, local governments, utilities and tax incentive policies. Under the original proposal, minority leaders were to appoint two of the five members from their chambers. Currently, this arrangement requires that only one member come from the minority party.
A handful of Democratic members voted against removing the bill from committee. After the hearing, MP Ismail Mohamed of British Columbia explained that he was frustrated by the slower, considered response when their constituents see an immediate problem.
“We usually vote in favor of commissions because we don’t mind commissions,” he said. “But the problem is that when it comes to data centers these days, there are a lot of them popping up and they’re having a major impact on locations. They’re moving really fast.”
The bill requires at least four public hearings. Two of them must contain expert testimony, and the other two must be made available to the public.
The committee’s tasks are specified in the statute. Members must consider economic, environmental, agricultural and utility impacts. They must also consider potential pollution, including sewage, noise and delicate.
Other priorities are more diffuse: How do data centers and the technologies that underpin them relate to national security? Do foreign actors spreading propaganda aim to strengthen opposition to data centers?
The Data Center Inquiry Committee will work to a tight schedule. If the bill passes, the first hearing must be held within 45 days of the bill’s enactment and commissioners must submit a report within six months of the bill’s effective date.
What Ohioans had to say
Kara Hetrick lives on 15 acres of woods near Gibsonburg in northwest Ohio. She is frustrated that the proposed data center could be located less than a mile from her home.
“What will happen in 10 to 15 years when the data center leaves this area?” she asked during her hearing last week.
Hetrick believes that the constant noise and brilliant lights will scare off local wildlife and worries that water used to frigid the facility will become contaminated and eventually end up in a nearby lake.
But she was particularly concerned about a commission investigating whether foreign propaganda was fueling opposition to data centers.
“Now we will have more wasted tax dollars investigating so-called foreign propaganda,” she said, “when really it all comes down to us the people expressing our fears of the opposition.”
Nikki Gerber runs a kayak rental company in Manchester, Ohio, and she described her home in Adams County in glowing terms.
“Magic comes to mind,” she said.
Gerber hopes the commission will provide guardrails to protect the area’s natural resources.
“Because the way they operate deprives us of everything that those who came before us learned from living in times of industrial development in the past,” she said.
Perhaps hinting at the political importance of data centers on the campaign trail, two politicians also put in their two cents.
Eric Watson challenges Rep. Click in this year’s Republican primary.
Watson insisted that he came not as a candidate but as a concerned citizen.
He opposed this solution and criticized lawmakers for not including external experts in the commission. He warned that electromagnetic radiation could harm pollinators such as honey bees, and local governments were being sued by tech companies for compliance.
Kim Georgeton, who is running for lieutenant governor with Republican Casey Puch, argued that investigating the issue would not be enough.
“I am asking for an immediate statewide moratorium of at least 36 months on data centers, server farms and related artificial intelligence infrastructure,” she told the committee.
She insisted she wasn’t anti-technology — data centers just hadn’t proven to be a good solution yet. They receive gigantic tax breaks, escalate energy costs and offer very few lasting jobs in return, she added.
“A data center moratorium is not a no-no, it just isn’t there yet,” Georgeton said.
Business view
Meanwhile, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce sees a booming industry that brings jobs and tax revenue to the state.
Chamber Senior Vice President Rick Carfagna told lawmakers that data centers will be responsible for creating more than 95,000 jobs in 2024 and generating $26.4 billion in economic output, study finds Chamber tests.
It is worth noting that this figure includes momentary construction-related work.
While some Ohioans are campaigning to eliminate property taxes, Carfagna added that “data centers represent a significant source of revenue for local governments that does not come from voters’ pocketbooks.”
He noted that’s about $1 billion in state and local taxes that support schools, libraries and local governments, “without requiring more from homeowners and small businesses.”
Greg Lawson of the free-market think tank The Buckeye Institute framed his argument in terms of national security.
He claimed that the country is engaged in a kind of “technological cold war” with China and that the artificial intelligence tools used in this dispute are based on data centers.
However, the Ohio Farm Bureau took a more skeptical tone.
The group’s director of state policy, Evan Callicoat, explained that his members are torn: contemporary agricultural technology is crucial to their success, but the extent of land devoted to data centers is a concern.
“Once farmland is lost, it’s probably gone forever,” Callicoat explained, and many of his members are unsure whether the benefits data centers promise outweigh the costs.
“Creating a study commission allows for an in-depth cost-benefit analysis to ensure we do what’s best for our state in the long run before we reach a tipping point,” he said.
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