In the American psyche, data centers have become so reviled that big tech can’t even pay residents life changing money to welcome the facilities into their backyards.
That’s not an exaggeration: voters in the former coal-mining community of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania are mobilizing en masse against a massive Amazon Web Services facility that would come along with a $10,000 direct cash dividend to every resident.
That’s according to reporting by PennLive, which notes that nearly 17 percent of the township’s residents live below the federal poverty line. Despite the possibility of a $10,000 payout, residents are organizing to reject both the data center campus itself — named “Project Hazelnut” by the developer NorthPoint Development — and a lengthy stretch of power lines meant to supply power to the facility.
As PennLive observes, the $10,000 scheme is an unusual attempt by a data center developer to smooth over opposition in a section of the country which is overwhelmingly opposed to the facilities.
