Should Colorado Allow Data Centers?

Are they actually an asset for Colorado communities?

Or do we want to discourage growth?

Meanwhile some Colorado communities are calling for moritariums on new data centers. Rather pay higher taxes for schools instead?

I guess I would say it depends . . . if the data center construction includes the company building it to provide their own power to operate it why should I care? If it will increase my electricity rates because Xcel doesn't have enough to go around and gets to charge more for the limited supply, why would I support it?

Agree. Still much to decide on regulating the new industry. And taxing it.
Douglas County gave decades of tax breaks to one data center corporation. Might to take years to find out if it was a smart idea.

I can only hope that Colorado does not ban or restrict the data centers. I certainly do not want Colorado to follow the New York example of banning fracking. By that I mean NY shot itself in the foot because of the short-sighted views of the "Climate Change" community.
Data centers use much less water than a golf course and will be providing their own source of power. However the Luddites in the Colorado legislature will do what they want to do.
In the immortal words of. a spokesman for the Green Party, "why do we need farms, the grocery store has all the food that I need".

In the current jobless economy, at least data Centers are still creating jobs. Jobs that are much better than gig economy jobs.

This is an article worth reading. An in-depth look at how the possibility of a data center has split a community.
In my mind the build out of data centers. is no different than any other major development project. Some want it other do not.

Sorry.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-data-center-rural...e16?mod=hp_lead_pos7

Agriculture keeps removing labor from the equation. No more kids weeding fields, now lasers destroy invasive plants. This Midwest towns will disappear if they don't replace manufacturing and farms with data Centers and other industries.