Guest Column: Now Is Your Chance To Define Responsible Data Center Development

A Gallup poll found seven in 10 Americans oppose AI data centers in their local communities, and at least 15 states have considered moratoriums, according to a guest column from the Wyoming Outdoor Council. The column argues Wyoming should retool its 50-year-old Industrial Siting Act and draw on the $13 billion Permanent Mineral Trust Fund to define responsible data center development, and the Wyoming Outdoor Council plans a series of community forums across the state over the next several weeks.

There is an intense national conversation underway around the regulation of data center development. A recent Gallup poll https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx found that seven in 10 Americans oppose AI data centers in their local communities. At least 15 states https://www.ncsl.org/fiscal/which-states-are-banning-data-centers have considered moratoriums and governors across the country including in Wyoming have issued executive orders in response to a wave of development proposals. Local governments are scrambling to understand the implications of these new projects and communities are raising legitimate concerns over increasing electricity costs and impacts to water, air, and local character. How Wyoming responds in this moment will undoubtedly shape the future of our state. I’ve spent my career leading conservation NGOs in the Mountain West, building coalitions, and working on complex issues that intersect conservation, land use planning, and development — and I can tell you that the tone of this conversation is different, and it is heading to a breaking point. Communities of all stripes and colors – blue, red, purple, green – are looking for greater agency, transparency, and guardrails to ensure that data center development is done responsibly. What remains to be seen is how and if Wyoming’s leaders will rise to the occasion to define what “responsible” means — on Wyoming’s terms, grounded in what defines us. Fortunately, Wyoming has a precedent for this type of leadership and foresight from which we might draw inspiration. A little over 50 years ago, Wyoming’s leaders came together to do two things that changed the course of development in this state for the better. First, the Wyoming Legislature passed the Industrial Siting Act – a novel regulatory approach that allowed state and local authorities to engage directly in the permitting of large projects and help fund communities to deal with the impacts of these projects. Second, Wyoming had the foresight to create the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund, which takes severance taxes on mineral extraction and invests them to support the state’s finances. That fund now has over $13 billion – it is the largest single fund in Wyoming’s investment portfolio – and plays an essential role in supporting public services and balancing our state budget. These policies came at the right time and at the right scale. Wyoming’s leaders anticipated change, and they guided it, crafting legal mechanisms to empower local communities and invest in the future. Large industrial development took many shapes and forms. We may argue about specific impacts, but we can’t dispute that Wyoming’s leaders had the foresight to make the issue bigger than any one project. Wyoming as a whole benefited as a result. Data centers are a different type of industrial development, and the structures created more than 50 years ago need retooling to ensure Wyoming benefits from this new type of development. Wyoming’s leaders could not have imagined the impacts of data center development on our environment and quality of life in the past. They can now. As Wyoming stares down the barrel of a new digital age, we need vision, leadership, and guardrails to guide this development. Communities are demanding more of a say in their future, and today’s boogieman is how future data center developments occur. Fear of what might happen must give way to a vision of what we want, collectively, and how we are going to get there. It’s time we worked together to define what responsible data center development looks like on Wyoming’s terms — now and for future generations. Leaders who fail to give the public modern tools to address modern challenges are merely feeding “Club no”. The Wyoming Outdoor Council is attempting to catalyze this conversation https://wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org/data-centers/ over the next several weeks with a series of community forums across the state, and we hope you’ll be part of the solution. What types of policy guardrails do we want to place around the things money can’t buy — clean air, clean water, dark skies, open lands, peace and quiet, healthy wildlife populations, and the quintessential character of so many Wyoming towns? We are eager to help communities advocate for tools to help guide data center development on their terms. We did this some 50 years ago by helping to champion policies like the Industrial Siting Act, and we hope Wyoming leaders and citizens alike will join in doing it again. Carl Fisher is the Executive Director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, Wyoming’s oldest independent conservation organization.