About 100 Gillette residents gathered to discuss the potential risks and benefits of large-scale data center developments at an event hosted by the Wyoming Outdoor Council (WOC) late last week.
It was one of seven community forums held across the state in an effort to learn about what regulations Wyomingites would like to see for future projects.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council is a nonprofit conservation advocacy group. Data Center Policy Manager Jocelyn Wulf said the conversations during the forums may help the council craft model legislation ahead of the upcoming legislative session, which lawmakers could reference when drafting bills for introduction. The organization has a community petition advocating for more protections, which they have mentioned to attendees during the forums.
Wulf said data centers are at the center of several overlapping areas of focus for the council. She said the organization recognizes the importance of strong community protections as the industry continues to grow.
“[Data centers] lie really at the intersection of clean air, clean water, wildlife … all of these natural resource issues that Wyoming Outdoor Council focuses on,” Wulf said.
The Gillette event was the highest attended forum so far, according to Wulf.
“We really wanna hear from communities about what they're thinking, what they're concerned about, even what they're excited about with regard to data centers,” Wulf said.
The three-part forum began with a presentation by Wulf on risks and benefits of the large-scale projects, known as hyperscalers. The WOC highlighted energy use, chemicals used in cooling systems and interference with wildlife as areas of concern when it comes to hyperscale developments.
“For me, an event like this is important for people to become informed and have the accurate information so they're not living in their own echo chamber,” Gillette resident Vicki Swenson said. “I think whether we want a data center or we don't want a data center should be based on accurate information and input from all the stakeholders, county commissioners, the city council and the people who live in Gillette.”
Later in the evening, attendees were asked to share their own concerns and consider how they could advocate for their own communities through community benefit agreements (CBA).
CBAs are legally binding agreements between data center developers and the community that they are in, Wulf said at the meeting. She said elements of an agreement are often designed to offset negative impacts a development may have on the health of a community or damage to the nearby environment.
“The best time for a community to enter into one of these agreements is really before a project is approved, before a project is cited, while that community still has the leverage they need to have a seat at the table and ask for what they want,” Wulf said at the meeting.
For several Gillette residents, community benefit agreements don’t offer enough protections to offset the potential risks of nearby hyperscale data centers.
“We are absolutely against the data centers. I don't feel there's any community benefit to them,” resident Mandy Steward said. “I feel like it will deplete resources. They're not gonna be held accountable.”
Several hundred Cheyenne residents shared a similar perspective on data center development back in May, when a petition for a one-year moratorium in the city was presented to the city council. The proposed moratorium ultimately failed the council’s vote 8 to 1.
Others in Gillette viewed the information presented by the Wyoming Outdoor Council as a step toward better understanding the rapid growth of hyperscale data center development.
“My mind is open to them,” Gillette resident Levi Jensen said. “I want to see good information roll out. There's a lot of different things you see talked about in the public, and I just wanna see accurate information conveyed.”
Wulf said the Wyoming Outdoor Council believes data center development interest will continue in Wyoming. She said the council’s goal is to learn how to best serve Wyomingites while trying to negotiate for health and environmental protections.
She said the feedback and input received at the community forums will aid in understanding how to best advocate for what Wyomingites want during the upcoming legislative session.
The final community forum hosted by the council will be held in Lander at the beginning of December.
