On Wednesday, Oct. 28, Chatham County leaders and local environmental activists gathered at the Pittsboro Community House to call on North Carolina Governor Josh Stein to enact a statewide moratorium on data center construction.
The event was organized by the Haw River Assembly and featured speakers from across Chatham County, including Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation’s Crystal Cavalier-Keck, and Chatham County Board of Commissioners Chair Amanda Robertson. Outside the community house, attendees showed off Paperhand Puppets art and chanted classic protest slogans. Organizers said the event makes Chatham County the sixth in the state to call for such a moratorium, following Vance, Forsyth, Richmond, Durham and Buncombe Counties.
In addition to the call for a moratorium, the speakers also advocated against people voting for three proposed amendments to the North Carolina state constitution, which they said will limit local governments’ ability to regulate projects such as data centers. They also took aim at Enbridge’s proposed natural gas pipeline, which continues to be a hot-button issue for Chatham County residents.
“To Enbridge, to Kirk Bradley, to any out of town corporate interests thinking Chatham County is an easy target, we have decades of experience fighting corporate polluters and we will not back down,” said Robertson.” To Governor Stein, please enact a moratorium on data centers that pollute our air, our water, and North Carolina residents.”
Bradley is the developer behind the proposed ECO TIP West data center at Chatham County’s Triangle Innovation Point, which many activists say would be powered by Enbridge’s natural gas pipeline.
“Make no mistake, this pipeline isn’t an accident,” said Robertson. “It ends in Moncure, right next to the site of a proposed 750 megawatt data center planned by developer Kirk Bradley. A facility this size could consume as much power as the entire nearby Sharon Harris nuclear facility produces. We know how this playbook works. Six months or a year from now, don’t be surprised if Duke Energy shows up asking to build a massive gas-fired power station nearby in Moncure to fuel it all.”
Enbridge representative Persida Montanez said the pipeline will not and cannot be used to power a data center like ECO TIP West, and said it also couldn’t fuel such a gas-fired power station. She also said Enbridge does not have any plans to partner with Duke Energy on such a project.
Chair of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners Amanda Robertson speaks at the Haw River Assembly’s press conference (Image via Falco Studios/Jenna Dunning).
In February, Chatham County enacted its own 12-month data center moratorium, which prompted a legal challenge from Kirk Bradley.
“He sued the county to bypass environmental safeguards, sought summary judgment to avoid going to trial, and a visiting judge ruled in his favor,” Robertson said. “Now he wants Chatham County taxpayers to pay his legal fees and damages. We will have our day in court this April on damages and commissioners will then have an opportunity to exercise our right to appeal that summary judgment.”
As mentioned, a statewide moratorium was not the only focus of the press conference. Haw River Assembly Environmental Justice Community Organizer Aidan Loretz said the three state constitutional amendments on the ballot this election cycle could make the fight against data center projects more difficult if passed by North Carolina voters.
“Two amendments in particular, the Income and Tax amendments, could potentially increase data center approvals, leading to additional fossil fuel infrastructure in our watershed,” Loretz said. “These amendments would devastate local budgets for schools and emergency services and would hand corporations the biggest tax cuts. Local governments would only have two choices to collect the revenue they need for basic services: 1) increase sales tax, fines, and fees; 2) approve polluting industry projects like hyperscale data centers.”
She restated the central message of the press conference, which ultimately covered many local environmental and political subjects.
“A statewide data center moratorium is how we ensure our General Assembly takes the time to create strict rules and ordinances to protect the health and safety of all North Carolinians,” Loretz said.
At a short meeting on Thursday, Oct. 29, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to apply for a text amendment to the Chatham County Zoning Board related to data centers. The board also scheduled a legislative public hearing for Nov. 30 to discuss those text amendments. As of Oct. 30, there is no statewide data center moratorium.
Featured image via Falco Studios/Jenna Dunning.
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