Climate alarmists have kept busy trying to snuff out the two most important new avenues of economic development in Louisiana, challenging policy-makers to counter such agendas contrary to the benefit of the people.
Earlier this fall, a rogue state judge invented law out of thin air to halt construction of another liquified natural gas production facility for export purposes near Lake Charles. She said the state didn’t take into account the alleged factors of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming effects and “environmental justice” in issuing a permit needed to proceed – an unprecedented ruling.
Although precedent argues that ruling stands little chance of being upheld by a higher court, the state went ahead and revised its determination to expedite the process on the basis of the judicial objections. In it, the state reaffirmed that the concerns it supposedly hadn’t addressed were and concluded the appropriateness of issuing the permit. For now, that may have turned aside the ploy of several activist groups concerned with carbon issued into the atmosphere in the transport and liquidation of natural gas as well as its eventual use after transportation to prevent propagation of the process.
That’s not the only effort to block progress on the altar of the CAGW hoax. It seems but a matter of time before such special interests organize opposition to data centers. Louisiana as of now has several in use, but at least several more appear to be in the works with the headliners being the Hyperion project near Monroe and the Hut 8 project near St. Francisville.
Across the country, local opposition has cropped up to siting these. It appears bipartisan in nature, although for different reasons. Objectors identifying as Republican invoke economic arguments such as too-favorable taxation for entities, while those calling themselves Democrats focus more on environmental concerns such as carbon output. One advocacy group claims $64 billion worth of projects have been canceled or delayed by opposition.
Louisiana has tried to forestall some of these objections from gaining traction. The Senate formed a task force to try to get ahead of roadblocks, with a report to the Legislature containing recommendations for its action due at the start of March. At the most recent meeting, which dealt with power issues, while state and industry officials reassured the panel that even a large increase in computing capacity shouldn’t have an adverse impact on electricity rates and availability to the public and, in case of operators closing up shops, an oversupply that would put ratepayers on the hook for excess capacity, special interests invested in alarmism have pointed to reported problems in Richland Parish where Hyperion is being built.
These problems include those directly related to power supply, such as claims that power was cut to residents, and those unrelated, such as a steady stream of trucks hauling building supplies to the site creating traffic hazards, if not having these driven in an unsafe fashion illegally. Similar kinds of things seem to be discouraging some areas across the country, especially in states with many data centers or those in the south, from issuing necessary permits and zoning changes allowing a project to move forward, either because of policy-makers’ negative opinion or enough constituents pressure them into disapproval.
So far, that hasn’t discouraged local governments in Louisiana in welcoming data centers, but experiences elsewhere certainly provide a template for opponents to try to block these. Obviously, data centers should be good neighbors, and elected officials if they give tax breaks must be sensible enough to leave their jurisdictions with a net pecuniary advantage. But look for alarmists to organize themselves in Louisiana and begin to fight in front of elected bodies at the local level whenever a data center is thought to be in the mix.
In that case, policy-makers must understand for a good chunk of complaints the real mission of naysayers is to stop data centers because of an unsubstantiated and overblown belief that their operations threaten the planet. They must ignore these Chicken Littles terrified by junk science and instead keep their eyes on the prize of economic growth.
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