WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Tech companies could have a harder time building data centers here in the Mid-South. From Memphis to Olive Branch, communities are demanding more oversight. What can government do about it? With us again is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be here.
BLANK: Well, let's start with the Memphis City Council's proposed moratorium on new data centers and some restrictions in Olive Branch. How did we go from "wow, this is really going to generate a lot of tax revenue" to "we've got to stop these things from spreading"?
SANFORD: Well, I think the first thing we realized is that these data centers are somewhat of a nuisance. They're loud, they use a lot of electricity, potentially use a lot of water. Pollution is a problem. So I just think the public, which was sort of in the dark about it in the first place, came to the realization that these things are not a panacea that people said they were.
BLANK: Southhaven residents have sued over the noise of the gas turbines. I went down there last week and let me play you some sound of these SpaceXAI power generators.
[Audio of gas turbines thrumming on Stanton Road.]
BLANK: It's kind of a constant hum, like maybe just a never-ending freight train rumbling in the distance. But when you combine the noise with the air pollution and the water usage, Otis, do you think government's kind of failed to convey the full impact these centers could have? Or or do you think they they just didn't know about it?
SANFORD: Well, I think it's a combination of both. They may not have known the extent of the problems, but they didn't investigate enough. They were looking at just the notion of big companies, companies run by Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, coming into our community. There may be some tax money involved in that. But I just don't think that the elected officials and the business leaders did enough due diligence on the front end before these things were sort of sprung on us without a lot of people in the community even knowing about it, Chris.
BLANK: Like many issues here in Tennessee, especially when it comes to big corporations and the environment, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have different ideas. Last session, there were a number of new laws proposed for data centers. Only one of them passed. What are the main differences you see in how the parties are looking at data center expansion?
SANFORD: To me, the main difference is Republicans are interested in less oversight and less regulation. Democrats are just the opposite. It does not appear to me that Republicans, especially in Tennessee, care all that much about some communities where these data centers are located, especially in Memphis, in the southwest part of the city. But Chris, this is going to be, and it already is, a major political issue in the upcoming election. I expect a lot of Democratic nominees here for governor, for Congress, to make it a political issue and put their Republican opponents on the defensive, because there is a lot of discontent growing throughout the state about these data centers. So it'll be a political issue in the November election.
BLANK: Right, and in the governor's race, Marsha Blackburn, the the front-runner for Tennessee governor, says she wants to see more data centers. She's received more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from tech companies looking to build more of them here. And I guess a concern for Memphis goes back to when we said no to an oil pipeline. And then Republicans passed a law saying oil companies can now do as they please here; we're we're not allowed to get in the way of energy expansion. And I mention this because according to some reports, SpaceXAI is now the second biggest air polluter in the state after TVA's largest coal-burning power plant in Middle Tennessee. There are reasons we might not want more of these data centers in Memphis. Are you concerned, Otis, that if the city or county gets in the way of an industry seen by Republicans as a financial necessity for the state, there could be another intervention here, like a law forbidding us from regulating data centers?
SANFORD: Oh, absolutely. And especially if Blackburn is elected governor. And it goes to the notion that she doesn't really care all that much about what's going on in certain parts of Memphis. It's also interesting to me that her opponent in the November election, Jerri Green, was one of the sponsors of the moratorium at the city council the other day. So there's a stark contrast between how Jerri Green, the Democrat, feels about proliferation of data centers and how Marsha Blackburn feels. But yes, my overall concern is that you're going to have more meddling by the state into local government decisions and affairs to the point where if the state gets its way, we won't have any say-so over pollution and other issues that adversely impact our community.