AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Data is everywhere - on our phones, our computers, our smart TVs. And with artificial intelligence on the rise, data centers are being built across the U.S. and around the world to keep up with our insatiable need for content. These are giant buildings full of servers that store and help move information. They're noisy. They take a lot of power and water, and some communities do not want them. A data center is being planned in Tucker County, West Virginia, where journalist Dan Parks spends most of his time. He's been writing about it on his Substack, Country Roads News, and he's here to talk about it now. Welcome to the program, Dan.
DAN PARKS: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
RASCOE: So let's start with the proposed site of the data center there in West Virginia. Tell us about the area that developers have zeroed in on.
PARKS: Yeah, it's an area that has been going through a lot of transition in recent decades. It was a big coal and timber-producing region, and that still occurs there, although that's declining. And it's been transitioning to more of a tourist-oriented economy - lots of people coming in to hike and mountain bike and to ski. And that has caused some conflicts between sort of the longtime multigenerational residents and some of the more newer residents.
RASCOE: Well, how big will the data center be, and what will it include?
PARKS: What we know comes mostly from a permit that was filed by a company called Fundamental Data to build a power plant. There haven't been any plans or any proposals put forth for the actual data centers yet. The permitting process is only for this power plant, and the permit doesn't disclose the size of the plant in terms of the amount of acreage that it would take up. It does talk about the megawattage of the plant. It would be very large. It would produce about the same amount of electricity as a large coal-fired plant just about 12 miles down the road.
RASCOE: So what sort of response have you gotten from Fundamental Data?
PARKS: Well, Fundamental Data is headquartered out in Purcellville, Virginia, and I drove out there to meet with their official representative, who I tried to reach on the phone. He did meet with me, and we talked for a while, but he insisted that it all be off the record.
RASCOE: Well, then, you know, how do we know this proposed power plant is going to be built to serve data centers?
PARKS: Well, in a subsequent regulatory filing that Fundamental Data had to submit in response to complaints about this power plant, Fundamental Data did acknowledge that the purpose of the power plant was to support artificial intelligence and advanced computing. So that makes it pretty clear - along with the name Fundamental Data - what their intentions are here.
RASCOE: So do you know anything more about the plan to bring this data center or data centers into reality?
PARKS: So this bill, passed by the state legislature just a few weeks ago, wipes out the ability of local governments to have any control over these facilities. The idea is that the company can build this power plant without any input from local government and also, of course, then build the data centers also without any input from local government.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, data centers do have to be built somewhere. Are there benefits to a data center in Tucker County, especially maybe in this part of the country where there might be a need for jobs?
PARKS: Yeah, and I don't mean to imply that opposition is universal. There are some folks who support this proposal. You know, there's a lot of people who've lived in this area for generations who just don't see tourism as a viable way to make a living. You know, it's hard to tell somebody who spent their entire life in the coal or the timber industry that what they really ought to be doing is catering to the needs of mountain bikers and alpine skiers. It'd be kind of like telling a journalist that he ought to take up accounting.
So a lot of folks are interested in the jobs that might be created, especially during the construction phase. You know, the buildout of this power plant and the associated data centers would probably occur over many, many years. It could create a lot of jobs, although it's hard to say how many of those jobs might actually be done by locals and how many of them might go to people from out of state who have expertise in this kind of construction. And then, of course, there's the question after all the building of how many permanent jobs might be created by these data centers.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, it sounds like there are a lot of issues here. Is it the concerns about the data centers, or is it really just kind of the lack of transparency and also kind of the lack of autonomy that the area has over these planned data centers?
PARKS: Yeah, I think you put your finger on all of the above. You know, it's a lack of autonomy. There are folks who would welcome the data center if they could have a little more say about maybe where it's sited, or if they could have a little more information about how much water the facility might use. You know, that's one of the things that we know nothing about so far. The air quality permit that's required doesn't require the company to disclose any information about water usage. So folks are really wondering, you know, where are they going to get all the water needed to cool these data centers? They typically require enormous amounts of water to cool these facilities. Have they perhaps come up with some new kind of technology that doesn't require as much water? We just don't know because we just don't have very much information about how these facilities will operate.
RASCOE: That's journalist Dan Parks. Thank you so much for joining us.
PARKS: Thanks for having me.
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