We the undersigned insist on the following:

No datacenters without at least transparency, a datacenter ordinance, due diligence, public hearings, closed-loop cooling, siting away from waterbodies and neighborhoods, a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) study, and a bond in case of premature closing.

The petition:

https://c.org/9FndqzS4dq

Petition, Lowndes County, GA: Data Center Due Diligence, Withlacoochee River, Mud Swamp Creek

1. Local governments need to pass a moratorium on datacenter applications until they have a comprehensive datacenter ordinance.
2. Local governments need to pass good data center ordinances before considering any application.
3. Local governments need to do their due diligence, with independent third-party evidence, not just believe what data center companies tell them.
4. Local governments need to initiate a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) study for any datacenter of sufficient size.
5. State governments need to prohibit data centers and electric utilities from passing on power costs to other ratepayers.
6. Local, state, and national governments need to stop passing tax rebates and other favoritism for an industry owned by billionaires.
7. All needs to be with continual citizen input.
8. With all the local business parks, no datacenter should be next to a waterbody or a neighborhood.

Everyone needs to consider that the so-called artificial intelligence (AI) industry may be a bubble and putting too many eggs in one basket for jobs and tax revenue is not prudent when the bubble may pop at any time.

For much more information, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/