Hey #YangGang, if I haven’t proven myself than I don’t know what else I can do
6 delegates & 40% of the precinct!!
I’m headed to SC the last 2 weeks of Feb
My goal is to train every office/group of canvassers. I will then knock doors w/ ever canvasser for 30minutes.
Data center developer loses it in a letter to a county zoning and planning board. The letter reads like a scorned lover promising damnation on the county for wanting to restrict where data centers can go.
Brian Luftman, founder and president of American Farm Investors, sent the letter to Mercer County Planning & Zoning — the day before a public hearing on a draft ordinance regulating data centers. Instead of attending the meeting, he chose to skip it and deliver a strongly worded message.
The letter included passages like:
“I see no reason to attend another hostile meeting. Our potential developers cancelled their flights and also decided not to attend.”
“A world-class commercial developer and several international A.I. companies are very interested in developing in your county, but they will soon prioritize other projects that have less red tape. Sadly, the elected officials of Mercer County will not have a chance to vote on such a development, which would bring massive tax revenue to the county.”
He then laid out what he saw as the only two outcomes:
“If this draft ordinance stays on track, the Fiscal Court will be forced to either:
a) Adopt this restrictive ordinance, and probably never get a data center
b) Deny passing the drafted ordinance, and probably never get a data center”
Luftman added: “If I were an elected official in Mercer County, I would not be pleased that P&Z presented only those two options.”
He called the draft “quite amusing,” said it “should just be thrown out,” and warned that if adopted it would send “a strong signal to all developers… that Mercer County is inherently anti-development and impossible to deal with.”
He closed by saying: “If the goal of the ordinance was to block significant data center development in your county, you have taken a firm step in that direction.”
Have they considered Mercer County just doesn't want a hyperscale data center?
What’s interesting to me is these developers going around and buying up land, and just assuming the local governments will be willing to rezone and approve projects that they don’t have the infrastructure for. They even demand tax incentives in the process. When they don’t get their way because the payoffs and promises weren’t enough this time, they turn into petulant toddlers apparently.
For context, Mercer County has faced strong local opposition to a proposed large data center project on farmland. Residents raised concerns about noise, water and electricity use, traffic, and the conversion of agricultural land. The Planning & Zoning commission responded by drafting an ordinance with limits such as a countywide cap of 1,500 acres for data centers, requirements to locate in specific zones, and buffers from residential areas. The developer states these rules would block their specific property.
As a nation we may need more data centers to support AI and growing digital infrastructure. At the same time, it is up to each community and state to decide whether they can manage the real downsides — on local resources, infrastructure, farmland, and quality of life — in exchange for whatever economic benefits might come.
This case is the perfect example of how claims that data centers are paying their full & fair share are untrue.
Instead of doing a cost of service study and allocating the data center its full embedded cost of service, the utility and data center negotiated a secret, lower rate.
The deal gives Amazon a highly discounted, secret rate for 2,400 MW of data centers that will be powered by a polluting gas plant.
Compared to the transmission rate paid by massive steel mills and refineries, it will shortchange NIPSCO ratepayers by more than $2 billion!
🚨The IURC approved a sweetheart deal between NIPSCO and Amazon that provides for billions in rate subsidies for AI data centers at the expense of Hoosier ratepayers, while keeping the details secret.
It's one of the worst data center deals I've seen. 🧵
"What we've seen is big industry getting the red carpet rolled out for them year after year," @brycemgustafson said. "We put big corporations on a pedestal and throw Hoosiers to the wolves. So I don't think they're looking out for the everyday Hoosier."
This is a far bigger scandal than folks realize.
The IURC allowed Duke to raise rates by $295 million.
Duke asked IURC to reconsider and approve a $385 million increase.
The IURC denied Duke's request.
Duke then ignored the Commission and raised rates $385 million anyway!
@yeaALA18 Crying?? You must’ve been terrible at reading comprehension in school.
We are all laughing at Bama fans & the pine cone that’s still stuck your 🍑 after that 38-3 dismantling on the way to 16-0 & a playoff natty.
Yall ever gone 16-0 & won the playoffs?
@yeaALA18 😆😂🤣 The jokes on you
You thinking that’s an insult is hilarious cause that’s 1 more natty than I could’ve ever imagined 😝.
Your run with Saban is over. Your run paying players under the table to achieve dominance is over.
Dust off your trophies & touch some grass
This framing is particularly insidious and cyncial by EPA.
Local gov in many places don't have the legal authority to set environmental standards to protect residents! States like Indiana typically prevent local gov from doing so.
We need the feds to establish protections.
The federal government's response to widespread public concern about the environmental impacts of data centers is to tell us to it's not going to do anything about it
“I worked at Pfizer for 17 years. We didn’t discover drugs - we discovered markets. If a drug cured asthma in 3 days, we’d kill it. Chronic disease is where the money is. Cures are bad for business.”
— Peter Rost, former Pfizer executive
That’s the business model. Not healing people … keeping them customers for life.
Indiana has already given Big Tech companies a shocking $655 million in sales tax subsidies for their data centers, which only created 344 new jobs, according to IEDC data.
That's $1.9 million *per job*🤯.
The total subsidy amount will grow rapidly as data centers are built.
@ham_ezz That’s awesome! As an American I appreciate your fandom & passion.
It doesn’t take away from how we celebrate our teams as it’s not a competition.
Cheers 🍻 & GL in WC2026