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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
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JAMES
STUDDARD
See Ludwig, A6