Asking County Boards to Cite Data Centers is Unfair

Jonathon Coppess, an agricultural policy expert from the University of Illinois, has raised significant concerns regarding the uncontrolled growth of data centers across the United States. He highlights that this rapid expansion leads to the permanent loss of prime agricultural land and places an immense strain on local power and water resources, likening the electricity demand of a single data center to that of an entire city. Coppess argues that the burden of confronting these multi-billion-dollar tech companies should not fall solely on local county boards, which face extraordinary pressure when considering zoning applications for data centers on agricultural land. He emphasized that farmland, once converted for a data center, is permanently ruined for agricultural purposes, contrasting this with the potentially shorter lifespan of a data center's utility. Coppess believes this is a critical societal issue that warrants a collective discussion and suggests "putting the brakes on" data center development until a comprehensive understanding and approach are established. He further stated that while state legislators could address land-use questions, the issue's resource demands ultimately necessitate intervention from the federal government.