CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s glut of data centers has been the target of national publications lately, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
Free publicity is always nice, even if it is qualified by stories of Wyoming residents’ outrage over the intrusion of the centers into their big, rough state, particularly around the capital, Cheyenne.
This is not the Wyoming you see touted by the state travel commission in national publications for its mountains, rivers, wildlife, bluer-than-blue sky and the and tranquil beauty.
While data centers may be part of the economic engine that drives the state, they are not photogenic or tranquil.
Nor are they welcome by people who bought houses on open land because of the view, only to have their view destroyed by big, belching, dusty trucks and all that construction requires.
The protests in Cheyenne have been slow in coming, but now are at boiling point.
What to do?
Well — former Wyoming State Sen. Rex Arney, a Sheridan lawyer, has a great idea.
A legislative leader in his time, Arney was the prime sponsor of a bill to create the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.
A division of the Wyoming Department of Health, the council has authority to require owners of multi-million dollar projects to provide impact funds to communities where they set up shop, as it were.
The impact funds were used in the late 1970s to help compensate affected boom towns like Wheatland and Rock Springs for the increased cost of more children in the schools, more temporary housing, and the damage to streets and roads.
I always thought the creation of the council was one of the major steps the Legislature took during that period to help the locals. Those communities needed that help desperately, as I found out while covering boom stories in Rock Springs, Wheatland and Gillette
While today the council continues to rule on permits for other large developments, the law excludes local government units from its jurisdiction — like business parks, according to Arney and a memo from the Legislative Service Office.
Cheyenne has several data centers housed on city-owned business parks, developed by Cheyenne’s LEADS, the city’s economic development arm.
Arney’s suggestions would change that to give the council more power over the data centers.
Meanwhile the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal wrote:
- “America’s least-populous state has turned into the perfect breeding ground for tech firms racing to construct new data centers, thanks to its low taxes and plentiful energy supply.”
- “Wyoming residents are in an uproar over plans to build a 'man camp' to house thousands of out-of-state workers flocking to the region to build massive, power-hungry data centers - the latest instance of Americans revolting against such projects.”
- “Local officials are weighing a pitch from project developer Iron Guard Housing for a 'temporary workforce housing complex' for as many as 5,600 laborers and townspeople in the state capital, Cheyenne.”
- “State data show the new complex would be a small city in itself, larger than 84 of Wyoming’s incorporated cities and towns — and those who remember previous 'man camps' erected during labor booms are sounding the alarm.”
- “Ten of the massive centers are already up and running, five more are under construction and another nine have been announced, the Journal reported, citing Betsey Hale, chief executive of Cheyenne LEADS, the city’s economic development group.”
- “'They’re trying to turn our beautiful state into Colorado/California,' a community member cautioned on Facebook. 'If we don’t protect our Wyoming, we’ll have nowhere else to go! It will be over!'”
- “But another argued that the massive man camp could help boost the local economy in the city of 66,000, writing: 'Just think of all that money coming in with those workers buying things locally!!!'”
And, according to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle's account of a council meeting, “Members of the public expressed distrust about the pace of industrial development in Cheyenne, as well as the long-term impacts of data centers on water usage, noise and infrastructure.”
Contact Joan Barron ar 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
