No data centers without complete transparency

Mayor Cara Spencer has an important choice to make.

Last week, Mark Maxwell at KSDK wrote an insightful piece about data centers and their possible effects on water infrastructure in St. Louis. The truth is, the pipes in St. Louis are in desperate need of expensive repairs ($700 million by the latest estimate), and the thought is that building a massive data center could help to fund those repairs while not overloading the already-struggling system.

. “We could use the [data center] customers. We could use the revenue in whatever form it comes in. As manufacturing or industrial users have left the city, as residents have left the city, building that back in a meaningful way that is a blended approach is beneficial.”

-Niraj Patel, Director, Department of Public Utilities and Water Commissioner

I want to be clear here, I am still very opposed to the proposal to build a mega-data center in the Midtown neighborhood of the City of St. Louis.

The environmental impacts and the likely utility rate increases far outweigh the possible economic benefits or water infrastructure improvements from a data center, but I wanted to share Mark’s piece to show that there are reasonable and well-thought arguments to be made in favor of data centers, even from those who don’t stand to benefit financially from them (I’ve worked with Mark and Niraj both over my time in St. Louis. Mark is a good reporter, and Niraj is an honest public servant).

The issue we face now is one of transparency. The proposed conditions for this data center have not been made public, and that is completely unacceptable. Even worse, the developers who are proposing it, as well as Mayor Cara Spencer’s administration, seem to feel no obligation to make these details public before the data center is inevitably approved.

I say “inevitably” because the City of St. Louis under Spencer’s leadership appears poised to allow the construction of this data center, even while the developers who are seeking to build it are keeping their plans under wraps.

They seem to think they can roll their eyes and dismiss those who attend town halls and public hearings as far-left activists who aren’t worthy of consideration and aren’t representative of the public at large. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Data centers, and A.I. in general, are extremely unpopular with the American people. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows that Americans oppose the building of data centers in their communities by a whopping 65% - 24%.

To get more local, in the St. Louis region, public pressure caused St. Charles to put a moratorium in place, and it’s important to note that St. Charles isn’t exactly a haven of left wing extremists.

Maybe that’s why Spencer asked her Board of Public Service to delay voting on approving a conditional use permit for the midtown data center.

Maybe, just maybe, Spencer and her team are honestly weighing the benefits and drawbacks of building a data center, and they need more time to have those conversations and think through this whole thing.

But we should only believe that they are acting in good faith here if they make the entire proposal, including the conditions for the this conditional use permit, completely publicly available.

Spencer should release all of the documents related to this proposal and hold a town hall herself to explain every detail, and be honest with her constituents about the possible repercussions of this data center, including a complete analysis on the increased utility cost for the constituents who voted her into office last year. She could even talk about the possible benefits to our water infrastructure.

But anything short of complete transparency is the political equivalent of stepping on a rake, and would show the people of St. Louis that this administration will continuously prioritize business interests over transparency, and over the health and financial wellness of her constituents.

Let’s hope she makes the right choice.