Episode 1: Do Data Centers Need a Champion?
Welcome to the That Took Courage Podcast where we slow clap for courage, provide commentary and offer recommendations around communication challenges.
I want to open this episode and launch this podcast with a bit of commentary relevant to communities across the country.
I live in a mid-sized city in the pacific northwest. In this city we have a utility provider that provides electricity and natural gas to our community. This provider has been in the news lately as they have been in negotiations to provide power to a data center wishing to locate here.
Now, the purpose of this commentary is not to pass judgement or lay claim to a moral high ground if there is one. The purpose is to look at how the communication cycle is playing out here and to think a bit about how good communication could move the discussion forward.
So, let me lay the timeline out for you:
First, news breaks. Rumblings are rampant online that the utility is negotiating with a Data Center Provider. Petitions are flying. Accusations abound. This isn’t going particularly well for the utility from a communication perspective.
Second, perhaps predictably, elected officials respond. Statements are released. Moratoriums are proposed (and passed). It feels, on the surface, like the conversation has paused.
Third, the usual voices speak up. Business journal headlines foretell the demise of our economy if we can’t bring data centers here. The case is made that our future as a community is interlaced with the future of AI. Energy seems to shifts to influencing a future decision.
This is where I want to weigh in. I want to make it clear that I am not making a judgement about data centers or even if we should have one in my community. I am merely pointing to strategy and to my recommendation regarding how parties involved could move this discussion forward.
First, public outcry isn’t about a business decision made by a utility company. Outcry stems from the fact that the public has an idea of what a data center IS and what it DOES to a community. From what I gather, those who pushed back on the data center do not see alignment with the story they have heard about data centers and the community they live in.
Second, data centers do not have a champion. If data centers are a good thing, if they matter to our economy, if it is true that they can exist in a community without harming that community, THEN, someone needs to be telling that story. Data centers need a champion and they need one quickly. I am not suggesting a blatant PR campaign. Or fluff that an industry creates to “greenwash.” I am leaving room for the possibility that data centers COULD be good for a community and, if so, that story needs to be told.
To conclude, the discussion around data centers is a fascinating inflection point for public relations and for communication in the public space. It is very clear to me that the situation demands a kind of storytelling that has caught utility companies and decision makers unaware. I will be curious to see IF data centers gain a champion who tells the story of their benefit OR if the discussion continues to take place at the other end of the spectrum when a utility is negotiating to provide power.
What do you think? What do you recommend?
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