Data Centers Are Not a “Red State” or “Blue State” Problem; They’re a Working-Class Problem

In so-called “red states” and “blue states” around the US, from rural areas to urban centers, the explosion of new data center projects is impacting residents in poor, working-class, and middle-class communities alike. In this episode of Working People, we speak with a diverse panel of residents fighting new and proposed data center projects in Texas and Maryland about what it means for you and your community when one of these loud, polluting, energy- and water-guzzling behemoths comes to your town—and how to fight back.

Panelists include: Cheryl Shadden, a registered nurse anesthetist who lives right next to the site of a Marathon bitcoin mine in Granbury, Texas; Karen Pearson, a licensed professional counselor and a resident of Granbury who also lives right next to the Marathon bitcoin mine; Dr. Shannon Wolf, Precinct Chair in Hood County, who lives three miles from the Marathon bitcoin mine; Craig Jackson, a resident of Granbury who lives 300 feet from the site of a new proposed data center, and who is also a plaintiff in a current lawsuit residents have filed against the city of Granbury; Micaiah Lloyd, a grassroots organizer and resident of Charles County, Maryland, who lives near the site of a proposed data center; Hillary Gonzalez, an eco-poet, author, founder of Sacred Parks & Waterways, and a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, who lives right next to the site of Johns Hopkins University’s future Data Science and Artificial Intelligence complex.

Additional links/info:

• Protect Hood County website and Facebook page
• Sacred Parks & Waterways website and Instagram
• Viral MS Now clip featuring Cheryl Shadden of Granbury, Texas
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “A bitcoin mine in Texas is ‘killing us slowly,’ local residents say”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “‘Like being tortured’: Texas residents living next to bitcoin mine are getting sick and being ignored”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Toxic Avengers: America’s poisoned and abandoned communities must stand together or die”
• Christine Condon, Maryland Matters, “Data center frustrations cause upheaval in county primary elections”
• Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela, KERA News, “Granbury residents sue city over data center plan, allege Texas Open Meetings Act violations”

Featured Music:

• Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits:

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

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