NC WARN Files Request for State Records on Efforts to Recruit Data Centers
Commerce Department and Governor’s Office must disclose state activities and dollars used to recruit community-harming corporations; media outlets invited to join.
On October 1, NC WARN’s attorney filed a public records request with both the Department of Commerce and the Governor’s Office demanding the release of all records relating to state personnel involved in and resources spent recruiting data centers. Under the NC Public Records Act, state officials are required to respond.
North Carolinians have a legal right to know how much tax money is being doled out to some of the world’s richest corporations that continue targeting communities across the state – and which state officials have plotted with those polluters and Duke Energy to distort and conceal critical information from the public.
NC WARN invites media outlets to join our demand for full disclosure on this issue of enormous public concern.
An August report by the NC Budget & Tax Center estimates the state is in the process of pouring billions of tax dollars into various incentives, tax credits and other subsidies for AI data centers. In addition, NC WARN demands to know how much time and expenses have been dedicated by state employees strategizing with data center developers, Duke Energy and others.
The Center’s report notes that “data center subsidies are bad policy.” Economic development is often chanted as the justification for large projects by developers and state leaders. But among the many key points cited in the Center’s report:
Data centers provide very few permanent jobs, and they are low-paid positions.
Tech corporations [and state leaders] exaggerate data center jobs by including temporary construction jobs.
Data centers pose numerous harms to individuals and communities.
These harms include health damage from air emissions, water and noise pollution, and the disproportionate siting in communities of color and/or low wealth.
Governor Stein is among those who have praised the influx of data centers to the state; he was “damn excited” about Amazon’s construction of a data center in Richmond County. That’s softened a bit in recent months as public backlash across the state and nation has accelerated and as more is exposed about the harms of hyper-scale data centers, including the soaring power bills they cause for other electricity users.
Now, state leaders must begin making amends by coming clean. They must stop using nondisclosure agreements and claims of trade secrets to block the public’s view and enact a statewide, two-year moratorium on data centers as we all assess the damage being done.
Since June, NC WARN has called on Gov. Stein to ban Duke Energy from spending millions annually to recruit data centers as the sole justification for planning the nation’s largest buildout of fossil fuel generation. Why should a state-sanctioned monopoly be allowed to spend captive-customer money to pad its profits while driving up power bills and the global climate crisis?
There’s no straightforward way that we can force Duke Energy to divulge how many millions it spends annually to recruit dozens of controversial AI data centers. But under state law, agencies and officials must turn over all pertinent records – or face legal action.
It is indefensible for state leaders to use taxpayer money to fund the polluters that work against the public interest. It’s even worse that they keep doing so in the shadows.
This article was first published by NC WARN.
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