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I was outraged to learn that STREAM US Data Centers and their financial backer, the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, are asking for $744 million in taxpayer subsidies—that’s 3 /4 of a billion dollars—to build a monster data center at the failing STAMP mega industrial site in Genesee County. And what’s more, this data center doesn’t just want to steal our tax dollars to give them to wealthy corporations. They want that money so that they can pollute our air, squander our limited municipal drinking water, jack up our electricity prices—and all while creating only 125 jobs!
When it first proposed the STAMP site, GCEDC claimed that the project would provide over 9,000 jobs once built and fully occupied. So far none of those jobs have materialized—and it’s been close to 20 years. Now, because the STAMP developer has been unable to attract viable advanced manufacturing tenants, they have come up with a new scheme to build a massive data center at the site that will take up more than 20 percent of property while not creating anything useful (the data center would be for generative AI) and only a measly number of jobs. That means if this project is approved, we the taxpayers, will be paying the data center over $6 million per new job created.
Um—why in the world would we go forward with this project? Who, exactly, is it good for?
GCEDC will earn a fee based on the cost of the project. In this case, it would net somewhere between $76 million and $126 million for approving the project and awarding tax breaks. Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.
In its recent letter to GCEDC, our state environmental conservation agency, DEC, called their bluff. They also recommended many additional steps that GCEDC should take as part of its environmental review—including addressing the jobs issue, conducting a comprehensive noise study, and conducting a study that takes into consideration the Climate Law and other important laws that have been passed since GCEDC carried out its initial environmental review in 2012. I applaud DEC for this effort—now let’s hope GCEDC takes them seriously.
Holly Rockwell
Justice and Care for Creation Coordinator, Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester
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Thanks to Holly, another win for the Beacon in keeping us up to date on local and regional developments of critical importance to our future. Our neighborhood has been told of an ongoing town review for the approval of a battery storage facility in our neighborhood so we are “protected” from power outages. No brainer, right? However, big data centers use mega amounts of power like the one being considered by GCEDC and have the potential t impact our neighborhood. This is not a “no brainer”. Holly identifies so many other reasons why this should not be supported. She doesn’t address another big one- the impact on what remains of the Tonawanda Seneca reservation land and the people who live there!
We of the Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club are also vehently opposed! We are proposing a law that would require STAMP to provide its own electricity, and to recycle any water they use. Hopefully this would disincentivize further development.
These data centers, whether for AI or bitcoin, are huge wastes and for what?
Holly Rockwell’s letter spells things out very well.