A measure to place a moratorium on data centers, wind and solar farms, and battery storage facilities fails at Monday’s Montgomery County Commission meeting.

 

The contentious issue has been a topic of discussion by the Commission for several weeks. At Monday’s meeting, County Administrator Jonathan Booe presented commissioners with some pros and cons of allowing the construction of data centers in the county. Booe says data centers may be bring positive economic impacts to the community because they say they want to be good neighbors.

 

He cited the City of Pryor, Oklahoma, in which a data center company purchased a much needed new fire engine for the City. However, Booe also outlined the negative impacts. He says one of those is stress on the power grid. 

 

Another issue is water use. Booe says the state’s current largest consumer of water is just north, in Burlington.

 

Commissioner Phil Clubine says he is not necessarily against data centers, but he does support a temporary moratorium.

 

However, Commissioner Robert Bever says he wants to hear proposals from the company before he would support a moratorium.

 

During the public comment period, more than ten Montgomery County citizens spoke, with most of them in favor of the moratorium. The motion is made by Commissioner Phil Clubine and put up for the vote by Chairman Mike Cordray.

 

The failure of the measure to pass does not mean that the issue is closed. Commissioner Robert Bever is retiring at the end of this term, which means there will be a new member of the Commission in January. That commission could take up the issue again at that time. Until then, however, it appears there will be no data center moratorium in Montgomery County.