CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There’s disagreement among some members of the House of Delegates when it comes to the transparency of data center developers.
House members spent more than an hour Monday discussing data centers on the first of two days of planning meetings at the state capitol.
Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said the fairly new state law governing data centers removes local control and removes any reason for the developers to be transparent.
“That’s the part that really concerns a lot of us that removal of local control. Wouldn’t that remove the incentive for them to reach out to local communities? As far as I know, there haven’t been a lot of town halls from these companies,” Pushkin said.
Del. Jordan Maynor, R-Raleigh, said he heard the exact opposite from developers during a recent trip to an event called Data Center World held in Washington, D.C.
“We did hear several times the reiteration of that, ‘we have to get into these communities, we have to educate them. we have to be open has humanly possible, so the communities are welcoming and accepting of us,'” Maynor said.
Del. Tristian Leavitt, R-Kanawha, said data center developers are in a tough spot. He said he believes they want to be more open but their projects have yet to receive final approval.
“It strikes me that they are somewhat caught a little bit because they, unless I’m mistaken I don’t think any of these projects have been approved by the state yet, so it’s difficult to go and say these are the parameters when the parameters haven’t yet been approved,” Leavitt said.
He said what he heard from developers at the Washington, D.C. event is they data centers as America’s future.
“They want to do everything they can in a way that helps the community appreciate what they are doing. That helps them to get the approvals they need and so I didn’t hear any concerns about being open and transparent about what they are doing,” Leavitt said.
There’s another meeting Tuesday among House members at the capitol on data centers.