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We do not expect the furor about data centers to die down.
What we can say about proposals to build data centers must be similar, as a matter of principle, to what we say about any development: If or when it is done, there are right ways to do it, transparent ways that address the concerns of neighbors and place the appropriate guide rails and limitations on development.
The concerns with the use of non-disclosure agreements, on which The Center Square reported in our edition last Wednesday, likewise apply to other developments in other fields. We hope public officials take heed of these concerns and can work on adhering more closely to the spirit of public transparency -- preferably, if we're being blunt, without condescending lectures about how constituents simply don't understand the nature of business.
Public officials also need to transparently hear out the constituents' other concerns and address the strain these data centers -- and other potential developments -- place on the electrical grid and on water supply.
We are reluctant, at least at this time, to agree with those who want a blanket policy that prohibits all data centers from construction.
Our reservations are rooted primarily on three points.
First, we ourselves are undergoing a process of exploring how AI technologies can facilitate our own work, to which we have alluded on this page in the past. While we have found some aspects of our work for which current AI is ill-suited, we are finding other aspects where AI improves efficiency and production.
Second, we believe in property rights. We believe the ability of government -- local, state or federal -- to impede on property owners' liberties should be carefully constrained.
We recognize, unfortunately, that there are those in our community, across the ideological and political spectrum, that seem overtly hostile to property rights -- which brings us to our third point.
As this debate unfolds, we would like to see who is most outspoken and absolute about blocking data centers. Our comprehensive coverage of our communities have left us all too familiar with a vocal minority that will oppose any proposal to build more housing, any new retailer, any new solar panel or wind turbine contributing to the very grid every enterprise and family in our region needs, any gas drilling pad, any sale of government-owned property to the private sector where it can create prosperity -- it sometimes, if we are again being blunt, seems they are opposed to the very concept that someone should be able to buy a building or a piece of land and decide for themselves what to do with it.
This perception gives us pause, and we hope it gives our readers pause before they jump to conclusions about the feasibility of data centers in central Pennsylvania as well.