August 21, 2021

What are your thoughts on data centers?

This is one of the questions I get most at the doors in District 23 — so let's talk about it, and not just about your electric bill.

This is my ballpark. As an engineer with HP in the '90s and 2000s, I helped build and support actual mission critical data centers in this state, hands on the equipment. Those were classic facilities that employed real people. Today's hyperscale AI farms are a different animal entirely, and we've left the door wide open for them. So when I tell you these AI farms offer nothing to real Delawareans, and we're about to get left holding the bag when the bubble pops, that's years of knowledge talking, not a guess.

Power gets most of the attention, and this year's law requiring data centers to bring their own power and meet renewable standards was real progress. But power is just the start. These facilities run thousands of fans around the clock, producing low-frequency noise that's been measured up to two miles away and linked to sleep disruption and real health impacts on neighbors. Their cooling systems can consume staggering amounts of water, straining the private wells and public water supply our communities depend on. And once built, a data center reshapes a community's land, heat, and character for decades, long after the technology it was built for is obsolete.

Kent County and Dover have already had to step in with noise limits, water disclosure requirements, and even moratoriums because the state didn't act first. That's backwards—this is too big to be addressed at the county or local level.  We need guardrails now that look to the future and can stand up to rapidly evolving technology—with real community input before any shovels go in the ground.  

I'm not against progress. I'm against Delaware paying for someone else's progress and profit with our resources, our dollars, our peaceful communities, and our future.