Seven lawmakers fielded more than four hours of testimony Monday afternoon from several dozen researchers, activists, environmentalists, and even Ohioans as young as 12.
Most railed broadly against data centers, the electric-intensive facilities that have taken over swaths of farmland this last decade. It was the second meeting of the state’s Joint Data Center Committee.
“We have already established there are too many unanswered questions,” said Nikki Gerber, an organizer with Conserve Ohio and resident of Adams County.
Conserve Ohio is trying to get its constitutional amendment before voters this November banning large-scale data centers. Several committee attendees wore shirts with the Conserve Ohio logo.
The concerns among those who testified ranged from electric and water demands, to environmental ramifications, to state and local tax incentives draining fiscal resources, to non-disclosure agreements executed between data center owners and local governments. More than 50 local governments have data center moratoriums, based on recent Statehouse News Bureau analysis.
“We’re one of the most beautiful states in the whole United States, it’s beautiful here, and we don’t want to ruin that,” Rep. Adam Holmes (R-Nashport) told reporters. “So everything that’s been said resonates.”
But it got tense at times, at least in the earlier half of the hearing.
“We are not radicals backed by foreign interests,” testified Austin Baurichter, an attorney and organizer with Conserve Ohio. “I think in your hearts you know that we are your neighbors.”
In an earlier exchange, Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta) had asked whether a witness—who has lived in both Florida and Ohio—had gotten money for his testimony. And last Friday, in a news release, a Senate Majority caucus spokesperson wrote data centers were being “targeted” by “interests that want to make sure your data is stored in communist China.”
“Several of the witnesses made it clear that they are not funded by anyone, and I take them at their word,” Chavez told reporters. “Our job is to find out facts and information here at the local level.”
The committee is scheduled to meet at least three more times between now and next week, including Thursday morning, when they will hear invited testimony from tech giants Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, Holmes said.
