About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 2023)
Wednesday, June 14,2023 FAYETTE VIEWS A4 Fayette County News Data Centers: Many Unknowns "The reason there's not a lot of transparency, simply put, [is] I think most companies don't have a good story here (water related risks)." -Kyle Myers, vice president, Cyru- sOne, data center company. The construction of the Fayette County QTS data center, near Trilith, removes 615 acres of forest, replacing it with the largest data center in the world (i.e., lots of buildings). The unanswered question is, “How does this QTS data center benefit Fayette County citizens?” Most of us moved to Fayette County for its great quality of life. Schools are fine, crime is low, and we are surrounded by luscious greenery. We demand that our county stay that way, as reflected in every local elec tion. On the other hand, commercial growth is key to our tax base. Per Niki Vanderslice, CEO of Fayette County Development Authority, the Trilith complex is bringing in four times as much as that area did prior to its construction a decade ago. She states, “Our goal is to partner on a project that has a positive ROI (return on in vestment) for our county.” In today's digital age, data centers play a crucial role in powering our modern world. These massive buildings are filled with computers and storage systems, processing the vast amounts of data we generate daily. Data centers are the backbone of our nation’s online ac tivities, enabling us to access information, communicate, and share data effortlessly. They ensure our favorite web sites, social media platforms, and online services are readily available, an essential aspect of our connected lives. Some jobs are created by them, and taxes paid to the government. But local governments usually give tremen dous tax breaks, partially cancelling projected tax revenues. And only a handful of positions are needed to maintain these computers. No specific public information has been released regarding these key issues. On the flip side, the data center will be a negative for the environment, as well as for those living near that area. Centers consume substantial amounts of electricity to power and cool equipment. Their energy demand strains the local power grid and increases greenhouse gas emis sions, contributing to climate change. It is crucial for data center operators to prioritize sus tainability by adopting energy-efficient technologies, im plementing responsible waste management practices, and minimizing deforestation with the loss of biodiversity. Will Georgia Power be able to handle the increased load? Or will See Bernard, A6 JACK BERNARD Blood Diamond Ring For our 34th wedding anniversary (2011), I wanted to get something special for my wife: a diamond ring to re place the one she’d been wearing since the day we ex changed vows. It seemed like a pretty good idea, since it was the same ring my grandmother wore, even a lot longer than that. As I was going all the way to South Africa to run a race the month prior to our anniversary, and since South Africa is famous for selling inexpensive “blood” dia monds... well, it didn’t take a genius to decide the time was right (Since this is not a history report, you’ll have to perform your own research to find out why they’re called blood diamonds. Brace yourself). The race I was running, the Com rades Marathon, is the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon. It is an 87-kilometer (54 miles) footrace from Durban to Pie termaritzburg. I was told - check that: strongly advised - not to wander too far from my hotel in Durban and not to go out after dark to avoid the risk of getting mugged. Apparently “grab and go” is the national pastime in some parts of The Forgotten Continent. Durban, apparently, is one of those parts. The afternoon before the race, another runner and I were walking back from the race expo where we had just picked up our race numbers. It was 5 o’clock on a bright, sunny day, and people were moving about everywhere. Suddenly, two rather large gentlemen - scratch that: thugs - pushed me up against the side of a building. One tried to rip my backpack off my shoulder. Inside the back pack was my wallet, my passport, and my iPad with a jillion photographs of my two-year-old grandson. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance of him prying or tearing the backpack away from me. So instead, he ripped my Blackberry (re member those?) off my belt and ran. As for the other guy, he pinned me against the wall with his left arm. As he reached up with his right arm, I saw he had a rather sharp knife in his hand. As he was getting ready to stick his rather sharp knife in my chest, I found out that saying is absolutely true: your entire life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. Suddenly I heard the “clank” of the knife hitting the ground. Thankfully, the runner with me at the time punched the thug in the back, causing him to drop his weapon. Then he ran as well. I ran after them. Not ONE SINGLE PERSON so much as offered to call for help or lend a hand, with the exception of the other runner who, I have to assume, saved my life. As I started running, two thoughts crossed my mind: (1) Since I was running in sandals, I would have a hard time catching up to them; and (2) If I DID catch up with them, then what? They might have a gun. All I had were photos of my grandson. I decided to give up the chase and returned to my hotel that was less than a block away. There I asked the woman at the front desk to call the police. Four hours later - apparently it wasn’t considered an SCOTT LUDWIG About Those Infrastructure Projects? Hurry Up and Wait Last month, officials announced federal approval for Georgia’s third “inland port” in Gainesville. It is a major train to truck intermodal sta tion designed to get containerized freight quickly and directly to and from the Port of Savannah utilizing an express rail net work. In addition to making it quicker to de liver freight, a major goal of the growing in land port net work is to remove trucks from Georgia’s freeways. The Gainesville port and the operational inland port in Murray County near Chatsworth in northwest Georgia have the specific goal of get ting freight around Atlanta instead of putting additional long-haul trucks on Atlanta’s congested I-285 perimeter highway. The Gainesville inland port was announced by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2018. The ability to proceed with the port has been held up by the federal government’s approval under the Na tional Environmental Policy Act, re ferred to in policy circles as NEPA. A 2021 article on the inland port from the Gainesville Times included these lines: “This summer, GPA received a $46 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation. Phil Wilheit, chairman of the development authority, said this grant helped move the expected completion date up an entire year, and the port is ex pected to be operational in 2024. “Receiving federal money meant that GPA had to go through a Na tional Environmental Policy Act per mit process. The comment period for the NEPA permit expired last week, said Brian Rochester of Rochester and Associates, who is doing engi neering work on the project. This means the project should soon have clearance to start construction from the federal government.” With the delay in the expected NEPA approval, construction is now expected to begin next year and be completed in the summer of 2026. That’s almost an eight-year span be tween the announcement of a needed project and its completion, with much of the time span in between dedicated to waiting for permits. For background, it’s probably im portant to note that it takes signifi cantly less fuel to move a freight container via rail than it does by semi truck. There’s also a negative environ mental impact to traffic congestion, with motorists burning more fuel and causing more air pollution when they’re sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic than if they were moving at or near the speed limit. And yet, this and countless other infrastructure projects remain in limbo every year, waiting for federal bureaucrats to eventually sign off on them. They do this seemingly on their own timeline, often waiting years and sometimes even a decade before pro viding a green light. According to the federal Depart ment of Transportation’s website, the average NEPA process took between 54 to 84 months during the first dec ade of this millennium. After a bill aimed at “streamlining” the process became law, the time was reduced to 41 to 47 months between 2011 and 2019. Only a bureaucrat could look at a four-year wait time to issue a permit and declare it progress. The “debt ceiling” bill, negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden and named the Fiscal Responsibility Act, put ad ditional limits on the NEPA process that didn’t make the same headlines as the spending cuts and caps did. It was a priority for those on both sides of the aisle who understand that our ability to build infrastructure in a timely manner is completely ham strung by a well-intentioned, but com pletely broken, process. Projects with no or minimal fed eral funding will now be exempt from the NEPA process. For projects that still must have federal review, a single agency will be named as the lead, cut ting down interagency squabbles that lead to differing and conflicting guid ance. Other NEPA procedures are to be streamlined, and standards of “rea sonableness” are established, rather than relying on unattainable abso lutes. While all of this may be too “in the weeds” to garner the attention of many, it has been the overgrowth of weeds within this process that desper ately needed pruning. Those of us in high growth states cannot wait five to 10 years, once a solution to an infras tructure problem is identified, just to start work on solving that problem. By then, the problems have com pounded, and the solutions are too often out of date. Will this solve the problem? Doubtful. Is it a good start? We’ll know in two to five years, when new projects just being announced get (or don’t get) their federal approvals. CHARLIE HARPER Letter to a French Academic in Paris A letter to a French academic in Paris. The original was handwritten but this font was the closest I could get to cursive. This article is my unashamed rebellion against emails, verbally de filed with acronyms and other hysteri cal punctuations employed in our electronic gos sip. Notice, there are no needless CAPS for effect, or any FB speak, e.g., LOL, BTW (by the way), CTN (can’t talk now), b/c (because) b4 (before), and this - a popular one among pe dophiles - ASL (age/sex/location). Notice that I did not one time use the trite non-sentence, “What say you?” As an added bonus, perhaps you will become more acquainted with Marie: David, Forgive my tardiness in writing to you. All of a sudden, I had a surge of clients, insisting their innocence, who just had to employ me. I digress. After I returned to USA from France, I revis ited my interest in the French Rev olution. The group I was with in France was more interested in fashion and food than history. The one place on our itinerary I especially wanted to see was the Palace of Versailles. We ran out of time and the Macron riots were just heating up. By the way, the retirement age in the US is 65 (+-), but people usually work beyond that age. It is rumored that our president is 105 (hahal). Back to the Queen, yours, during the Revolution. She has become, at least to me, a heroine. She was mar ried, in the vulgar tradition ofmonar- chial rule (for political and military reasons. A 14-year-old (future queen, Dauphine) and a 15-year-old Dauphin, future king); all to cement an alliance between Austria (her homeland) and France. Louis XV, King of France and Marie Therese, Empress of Austria (their respective parents) should have borne the slings and arrows cast to ward Marie Antoinette during her reign as Queen. She suffered the worst of insulting treatment in the French Court, driven by a) an Austrian (her itage) Queen, and b) jealousies of Madam Du Barry (Louis XVfavorite court whore). Of course, suspicion of Marie Antoinette’s allegiance to Aus tria was exacerbated by a history of over 150 years of Austrian/French vi olent disputes. I could go on, but this is but old his tory to you. In any event, I have read several books on the subject, watched the 2006 movie "Marie Antoinette" (starring Kirsten Dunst, a great movie). I just finished the ultimate, his torically accurate novel "Marie Antoi nette, a Journey," by Antonia Fraser (married to the British playwright Ha rold Pinter). And please do not take offense that I make this observation: France, dur ing the time of the American Rev olution, was in economic dire straits due to frivolous spending on court lux uries, coupled with economic misman agement. Though they were nearing bankruptcy, the French loaned money they could not afford to America as a financial assist to the Colonies in their war against England. The Colonists did not repay the loan to France, which demonstrates a total economic andpo- litical naivete on the part of France for loaning it in the first place, and a bold face, shameful, renege on the part of the US for not repaying the loan. Ho wever, in some slight defense of the money loaned to the Colonists by the French: France had just been handed a beat down by the English in the Seven Years’ War and was seeking re venge with the blood money loaned to the US hoping for an American beat down of the Brits. Lastly, France was duped (goaded, for lack of a better word) into the Rev olution by many personages, i.e., Rousseau, Voltaire, Robespierre, Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Burke, Benjamin Franklin, et al. Alas, nothing has changed. And this denouement; Marie Antoi nette did not say, “Let them eat cake.” Joe Biden said that. Hope you are well. I may revisit France at the end of summer. In the meantime, I remain, Respectfully, James B DNNffn ComicaMncomct.com Nvl\iJ(c)2023 Creators.com X SO THIRSTY FREE BUD LIGHT NOTHANKS \ JAMES STUDDARD See Ludwig, A6
