Data Centers: Details Chambers Need to Know
By Rob Bradham, director of policy
Conversations our CICE team is having with chambers and economic development organizations across the country show data centers are among the hottest topics right now, from urban regions to rural counties. As a public policy and government affairs professional for 25 years, most of them in the chamber world, I can’t remember a single industry gaining such a high profile in the public’s imagination so quickly. Two years ago, most people outside the tech, energy, and economic development industries weren’t paying much attention to data centers. Today, they’re top of mind and often a source of division in communities.
While data centers are not the core of our work here at CICE, it has become virtually impossible to talk about the economic benefits of clean energy without data centers entering the conversation. Many of the chamber and economic development professionals our team speaks with are hungry for fact-based, unbiased information about data centers. To that end, we’ve updated CICE’s short brief, Data Centers: Balancing Economic Benefits and Resource Demands, which covers many of the basics chamber and economic development professionals need to know.
Data centers can be powerful economic development projects that boost a community’s tax base without straining schools, public safety, or roads. They also use large amounts of energy and can use substantial quantities of water. Depending on where they’re sited and how they’re powered, they can cause noise complaints and air quality concerns. Those air quality concerns, driven by behind-the-meter natural gas generation or backup gas or diesel generators, can also affect air permitting and available emissions capacity, putting future economic development prospects at risk. Navigating these issues along with public opinion is no easy task.
Through CICE’s Energizing Economies, we partner with local, regional, and metro chambers on siting clean energy projects across the country. This work reflects our core belief that chambers have a unique ability to bring local stakeholders together for honest, fact-based conversations about issues affecting their communities, including clean energy projects.
Whether a community chooses to pursue a data center should be a well-informed local decision. As with siting wind and solar farms, chambers can play an important role in convening candid stakeholder discussions about data centers. Our goal with this brief is to provide useful information as your organization and community navigate this often controversial issue.
CICE’s updated brief defines the types of data centers, weighs their economic benefits against infrastructure challenges, and examines the policy debate over tax incentives. If you have further questions, contact me at rbradham@chambersforinnovation.com.
