By Donald Glander

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Bonds

Abstract

Data centers, large buildings housing racks of computers and IT equipment that facilitate everything from cloud storage to AI technology, have almost literally sprung up from the ground over the last decade or so, and the push to amplify their construction is ever strong. Local governments across the Commonwealth of Virginia are incentivized to build them primarily because of the tremendous potential revenue benefit they offer: data centers are able to be taxed by local jurisdictions, thereby lifting the burden on ordinary taxpayers. But data centers come with tremendous costs too. They have numerous environmental impacts, including large amounts of water pulled from local reservoirs, extreme energy use that contributes to climate change. Traditionally, Democrats have been the party which is concerned more with climate change and environmental impacts than Republicans, yet so many local governments that have approved the construction of data center after data center are Democrat-dominated. This research attempts to understand how and why Democrats or Democratic-aligned local representatives talk about and justify the construction of data centers across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wUbgXKjxQJKi8FPImfZ4WC9vyV0Tcw_8PuTshTiVif0/edit?usp=sharing