00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by

00:03 - customer's bank.

00:14 - Representative Marla brown republican from Lawrence county

00:18 - as data centers come to Pennsylvania

00:20 - what impact

00:22 - could they have on farmland.

00:25 - Well that in fact is my concern

00:27 - and i come from a large agricultural

00:32 - community

00:33 - and

00:34 - i am concerned with the overall effects

00:38 - of

00:39 - these data centers on.

00:41 - The crops

00:43 - but also the the animals in the air area as are many of my farmers.

00:49 - Have you heard

00:50 - from your farmer constituents

00:53 - on this issue what have they said to you.

00:57 - Well they're they're deeply concerned.

01:00 - About the effects and there's a lot of research research that shows that.

01:06 - Crops

01:07 - are affected as are the.

01:12 - The animals the.

01:14 - The soils the water

01:17 - and i'm not i'm not willing to take a risk but

01:20 - more importantly.

01:22 - You know my big thing is that we have got to

01:26 - conserve our farmlands not only

01:29 - as a county but as the state as a country

01:32 - and

01:33 - this is

01:34 - vital to our future

01:36 - in my opinion

01:38 - or representative

01:39 - how possible is it for active farmland to be

01:42 - bought up for the purpose of building data centers.

01:46 - Well in fact that's going on in my district

01:48 - and.

01:50 - There there's currently.

01:53 - A proposal to build one that would affect

01:56 - active farmland

01:57 - and

01:58 - in in my mind we absolutely cannot let this happen.

02:03 - Our data centers are actively engaging with farmers are are they making

02:09 - offers

02:10 - just how enticing

02:11 - can data

02:12 - centers make.

02:14 - Their existence on farmland.

02:17 - Well you know you have farmers that are aging out

02:22 - and unfortunately they have children that may not be interested in

02:27 - taking up the profession and so a lot of.

02:32 - Farmers see this as their early retirement package and you're talking

02:37 - big money

02:39 - and

02:39 - millions.

02:41 - For.

02:43 - You know in my area we have a a power plant

02:46 - that is surrounded by farmland

02:48 - so the data center once easy access into the

02:53 - the gas lines that run into the

02:55 - power plant and that would jeopardize

02:59 - farmland.

03:00 - Not only where they would build but

03:03 - as i said the the nearby farmers that we'd be affected.

03:07 - Were code data centers go instead of on farmland there any ideas.

03:13 - So that's great question because

03:16 - i visited our power plant

03:18 - to learn

03:19 - a little bit more about why why and how they can.

03:24 - Gain access to this this pipeline

03:27 - that i

03:29 - would be able to fuel

03:30 - the power plants

03:32 - and they would absolutely be able to access it from

03:35 - the quarries the old limestone quarries that we have in our district.

03:40 - That are desolate were we're not doing anything with them.

03:45 - They would be able to

03:47 - build

03:48 - as many acres as they want in our old limestone quarries

03:52 - and be able to access the pipeline you know the problem is it would cost a little bit

03:57 - more for them because they'd have to lay more

04:00 - more pipe

04:01 - to access but.

04:03 - Do

04:04 - you know where to talking about a company that

04:07 - makes billions

04:08 - so i don't think that should be an issue.

04:11 - Let's tried to convey to our viewers just how much land is needed

04:15 - for a data center we understand

04:17 - some of these data centers can be as large as central park in new York city

04:21 - it's almost hard to believe.

04:24 - So this particular dive caliper that wants to move into my district is

04:28 - we'd be talking about a super.

04:31 - Scale data center and

04:34 - they're proposing about sixteen buildings.

04:38 - Hundreds of acres of land.

04:42 - So representative what does your bill do about

04:46 - data centers that could

04:48 - locate on farmland.

04:51 - So it is house bill twenty five eighty eight

04:55 - and it would

04:57 - do not allow data centers from.

05:01 - Or.

05:01 - They would not be permitted to build on classes one through three farmland which are.

05:09 - Active.

05:10 - Farming.

05:12 - Land.

05:13 - How much support are you getting from your colleagues so far.

05:17 - The interesting thing is you know

05:20 - the majority party

05:22 - came out with a

05:24 - a whole portfolio of bills to prevent data centers from.

05:29 - Yeah.

05:31 - Basically building at with with a lot of constraints

05:35 - but i'm

05:36 - quite disappointed that I've not seen a lot of

05:39 - bipartisan support on this bill because i would think

05:43 - that we all have the same goal and that is to grow our economy

05:48 - but

05:48 - to have boundaries

05:50 - bill lt in to protect our constituents.

05:54 - Not only our constituents but in this case our food source.

05:58 - Earlier in the interview you mentioned plans for a data center

06:02 - in your legislative district and

06:04 - tell us more about fattah about where is that located and

06:08 - at what stage is the development of that data set enter at right now.

06:13 - So

06:14 - do

06:15 - the data center would actually cross over to townships in my district mahoning

06:20 - township and north beaver township

06:23 - and

06:24 - those townships have been actively engaged in putting ordinances in place

06:30 - and

06:31 - what's disturbing to me about this particular development is that.

06:37 - The developer

06:38 - tried to get in behind closed doors before the

06:41 - ordinances were put in place and then they wonder why.

06:45 - None of the constituents trust them

06:47 - and.

06:49 - You know

06:50 - they they now are suing both townships

06:54 - because when they put their

06:56 - permit in

06:58 - it apparently

07:00 - was rejected because they didn't turn in the right amount of money for the permit

07:05 - which means they would have missed the deadline.

07:09 - For not having these ordinances apply to their

07:12 - their permit

07:14 - and according

07:15 - to the developer if he has to move forward with these

07:18 - ordinances in place that would be a non-starter.

07:22 - So.

07:24 - That's also a concern or a red flag to me that

07:27 - they're

07:28 - they're trying to do do something

07:30 - prior to

07:32 - an ordinance being put in place which and the ordinances that are based on

07:37 - what the community is saying they're concerned about

07:40 - so.

07:42 - It just doesn't

07:43 - sit well with me

07:45 - or you voted for a bill that monitors data centers usage of

07:50 - water and energy in general and tell us briefly

07:54 - why is that important to you.

07:57 - Well.

07:58 - I think we all know that our

08:00 - energy.

08:02 - Our grid

08:03 - is being

08:04 - overtaxed right now

08:06 - and.

08:07 - Being part of this pjm network is

08:11 - a bit of a

08:12 - challenge for us in Pennsylvania because

08:15 - we are

08:17 - basically allowing other states to use our energy

08:21 - and

08:22 - so we're exporting it out

08:25 - and that's leaving less for us here

08:27 - which is why we continue to see our energy bills go up

08:32 - so

08:33 - you know a lot of these developers keep saying well we're going to bring our own

08:36 - enter gee you don't need to worry about that

08:39 - but that's bit of a misdemeanor because.

08:42 - Like in this case this developer would

08:45 - would tap in to our energy source

08:49 - and they would be yes creating

08:52 - energy

08:54 - for the plants

08:55 - but ultimately it all all goes into

08:58 - a this grid

09:01 - that we share

09:02 - and.

09:05 - As i said earlier it's already overtaxed we need more power plants in Pennsylvania

09:11 - you know we

09:12 - we

09:13 - as a state

09:15 - told these developers that we wanted them to come to Pennsylvania because we

09:20 - we want

09:21 - you to the economic development but we weren't

09:24 - properly be prepared.

09:26 - For what they needed

09:28 - in my opinion

09:30 - and the taxpayers are going to end up paying the bill for that.

09:33 - Last question representative as you know more

09:36 - citizens are becoming vocal in their opposition

09:39 - to data centers

09:41 - so i tried to explain just how much

09:44 - are they now needed anyway for modern life.

09:49 - I mean it's a fact that we need them and i think as a country

09:53 - and.

09:55 - We want to gain access to this knowledge before

09:59 - a lot of our

10:01 - foreign competitors do and i understand that and i think there's a place for them

10:06 - even in my own district i i was

10:08 - find a place that would be easy access for them

10:11 - and

10:13 - but they there's absolutely no place for them

10:16 - on farmland in my opinion.

10:19 - Represented Marla brown republican from Lawrence county thank you very much.

10:25 - Thank you.

10:28 - Hmm.

10:32 - Hmm.

10:40 - Hmm.

10:44 - Hmm.