DATA CENTERS
Don't get stuck with their tab!
Developers are shaking down communities and states across the US for the most profitable sites for hyper-scale data-centers. Utilities are working hard to host data centers, because they require HUGE amounts of power.
Last year, 150 wooded acres off Campground Rd. were scalped of trees on the assumption that a new power plant would be approved to power a hyper-scale data center there. LG&E lacks capacity to provide enough power, so it's working on building a new power plant there.
LCAN expects all ratepayers will end up subsidizing that plant and transmission-line upgrades that WE don't need. Nothing exists yet to protect us.
Worse, Metro Louisville's land-development codes still don't cover hyper-scale data centers, so they can be located on any site with industrial zoning, essentially without public scrutiny!
The Metro Council last year asked Metro Planning to draft rules to protect citizens before 2026, but nothing happened. Yesterday, five members of a Council committee killed the effort to send a proposal for a moratorium to the full Council. See for yourself; watch item 3 in this video.
Please sign this petition, asking for protective rules
and, until then, a temporary, 6-month moratorium.
Who Picks Up Whose Tab?
Not only has the Ky. legislature exempted hyper-scale data centers from sales taxes, LG&E will need to build a new power plant for one hyper-scale data center. But, if that it doesn't come, needs less power than it claimed or leaves town, we'll get stuck with paying for the new plant and power lines plus return-on-equity (profit). The average residential customer in Columbus, OH, is paying an extra $27/mo. due to data centers! Will we be next?
Technology Changes Quickly
Power plants operate for at least 40 years. New data-storage technology is trending toward using less power. Building new plants and keeping an old one (due to be retired) for today's AI computing technologies makes no sense -- unless you're guaranteed a profit, as is LG&E-KU. (The last time they had excess capacity, they used it to justify killing rebates.)
What's in It for Us?
The majority of the Kentucky legislature, seeking to prop up the coal industry, voted to give big tax breaks to this energy intensive, hyper-mobile industry that creates relatively few jobs and can downsize or move if it gets a better deal elsewhere. They don't even make convincing claims of property taxes going to our local goverments and schools.
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