Massive data center brings big risks, adverse impacts for few jobs

Editor:

“As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: How much money will it bring in?” – Alexis de Tocqueville, circa 1840

The French aristocrat de Tocqueville traveled around America in the 1830s and wrote the classic and still popular book, Democracy in America. After nearly 200 years the above quote is still relevant.

Today, a few ultra-rich corporations have a tremendous influence on our economy and culture. As every business student learns, the sole criterion for corporate success is the generation of wealth for the shareholders. That’s it.  Anything else – equitable distribution of wealth, concern for nature and the environment, concern for employees and customers, basic human empathy – is only important if it helps increase shareholder wealth.

A consequence of this philosophy is the raw capitalistic ethos that dominates 21st century America: phenomenal wealth but savage inequalities, material well-being for some but hardship for many others, and emotional and spiritual desolation for nearly all. A change is needed.

A microcosm of the whole cultural picture is being played out locally, in the form of a proposed data center in Genesee County.

It will be huge, around 37 football fields.

It will use far more electricity than the combined total usage of Genesee, Orleans, Livingston and Wyoming counties.

It will cost over $19 billion to build, and will employ only 125 people.

The builder is asking Genesee County for over $1.4 billion in tax breaks.

It will be noisy – constant, 24/7 noise.

It will burn large amounts of polluting diesel fuel to run its backup generators.

Its wastewater will be handled by an awkward, heavily criticized plan to discharge treated waste into an already impaired Oak Orchard Creek.

It will be nearly surrounded by government protected land (e.g., the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge and others) and by the Tonawanda Seneca reservation. Spills of diesel fuel or cooling fluid could cause great harm.

It will be used by an undisclosed corporation, almost surely for artificial intelligence computations.

If America can avoid a bubble-bursting AI crash, the data center could be immensely profitable. Where will the profits flow? Essentially all the profits will flow out of our area, most to fabulously rich high tech corporations on the West Coast.

Data centers are, in essence, extractive entities. They use resources like land and electricity, and do not return meaningful wealth to the area, mostly because they employ very very few people. Granted, PILOT payments and fees paid to the GCEDC stay local, but remember that there’s also the proposed $1.4 billion in abated tax revenues that the state and county will never see. Finally, to make the whole situation worse, residential electric bills will go up. Please ask yourself: Is this what we want?

Perhaps more important than the economic issues are the social and environmental risks that come with data centers. Those risks are all borne locally. The Big Woods of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation gets the unceasing noise, the diesel exhaust, and groundwater pollution from any spills. We believe that it is neither ethical nor moral to subject the Nation to such risks.

Moreover, the buildings themselves will lie along the border of the reservation – looming, noisy reminders to the TSN that for 250 years our government has taken advantage of them.  Again, is this what we want?

Beyond the TSN reservation, the protected wildlife areas will be subject to pollution risks, the magnitudes of which are very difficult to quantify, but are not zero.

In summary, we contend that the local economic case for a data center in Genesee County is weak. We also contend that it is fundamentally wrong to base the decision on economics alone, and that arguments based on the lifestyles and well-being of local people and the health of the environment should be given more weight than they have been given. From  humanistic and environmental points of view, the risks of the data center outweigh any benefits.

Though our culture tends to channel us toward a narrow view, the value of everything in our beautiful world cannot and should not be reduced to economics alone. If you agree with us, please consider making your voice heard. We urge you to come out explicitly against the data center. You can start by contacting your local and state elected officials. This is not just a Genesee County issue; it affects all of western New York and beyond. Other communities around the country have come together and successfully stopped data center projects. We can too.

Sister Dolores O’Dowd (Chairperson, Green Orleans)

Kim Remley

Gary Kent

Dennis Seekins

Sharon Cassidy

The Reverend Joseph Kozlowski

The Reverend Robin Kozlowski

Holly Manaseri

Chris Manaseri

Charlie Manaseri

Tracy Panczyszyn

Frank Panczyszyn

Cheryl Giacherio

Dave Giacherio

(all signatories are from Orleans County)