By Fox23.com News Staff
COWETA, Okla. — People in the Coweta community came together to share their concerns with State House Representative Amanda Clinton, who has been researching the impacts of data centers.
They talked about infrastructure, how the center may affect utility usage like electricity and water, as well as hazards to the environment and what they feel like is general lack of transparancy.
“This is not the only data center that is going in to northeast Oklahoma or Oklahoma in general,” said Darren Blanchard, a farmer and land-use advocate. “They’re going in all over Oklahoma, all throughout the country, and this is converting thousands upon thousands of acres of land into industrial use. So what is going to happen to the price of food when we reduce our capacity to produce food?”
Blachard said while there is talk about national security, it is also a problem with food security. He said he’s not against the data center or renewable energy in general, but is for responsible development.
“When you’re putting these things next to people’s homes or in areas that are zoned as agricultural, there’s a reason why we have zoning laws in ths country, in this county, and is because it’s to prevent incompatible land uses and we’re kind of ignoring the laws that we have.” he said.
He also addressed misconceptions about the issue.
“I think what is being misunderstood is that that is corporate welfare. This is crony capitalism that is masquerading itself as national security because the tax payers and the rate payers are on the hook to fund these projects and that’s not right.” he said.
The planning commission is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the project. The City Council is expected to address it on January 5.
