Davis V. Goliath: a small town fight against big data

TUCKER COUNTY, W.Va. — Data centers were on the ballot for the first time in a U.S. election, according to Ballotpedia, which counted 47 local ballot measures dealing with data centers in the midterms. Voters chose to curb data center development in their communities in 46 of them.

Residents of one West Virginia community said they were not given that choice.

Proposed data center

The small mountain town in Tucker County is home to the Blackwater River and twin ski mountains. Tourism is the town’s lifeblood, and a proposed 10,000-acre natural gas-powered data center now threatens it.

Jane Browning, owner of Ranger Jane, said tourism makes up most of her business.

“Tourism is 80 percent of my business, and if there’s no tourism, there’s no business,” Browning said.

If completed, the data center would be the largest in the world, measuring slightly smaller than Manhattan.

Governor and residents

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey believes the project will be a boon for the state.

“We’re going to make sure that the water’s addressed, the environment’s addressed, that the power bills are lower, it’s going to get handled the right way,” Morrisey said.

Residents described the situation differently. One said, “It came out of nowhere, there was no warning, there was no opportunity to say no.” Another said, “We were never given a choice, never given a voice.” A third said, “There’s something here that we don’t know.”

Developer’s recorded comments

North Carolina-based developer Ted McGavran of Fundamental Data said on a hot mic in July why West Virginia was chosen.

“Up in West Virginia, we’re the guys that wrote the bill and got it through the Legislature. We can do pretty much whatever we want to do up there,” McGavran said.

Morrisey denied that claim.

The bill’s sponsor is West Virginia Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw. Hanshaw also serves as the lawyer for Fundamental Data, the company behind the project. Multiple requests for comment have not received a response.

Morrisey maintains the state is acting in good faith and said, “Nothing’s been approved.”

Public filings show the project’s air permits were approved Aug. 15.

Federal legislation

The issue has reached Washington. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Sheldon Whitehouse are introducing a data center permitting reform bill.

“When a community is considering whether or not to grant a permit to a major data center, it needs to understand what that project will mean for its electricity supply. Cost, water resources, infrastructure and local economy. In order for them to make a good decision,” Sen. Heinrich said.