Why Should Delaware Care?
The results of a vote on data center regulations could foreshadow the future of the emerging industry in Delaware. Now, competing factions are pulling out the stops to make it go their way.
The New Castle County Council will delay its vote on a controversial proposal to regulate the fast-growing, data center industry the new year, the sponsor of the legislation said.
Following a series of tense debates last month, Councilman Dave Carter told Spotlight Delaware he needs more time to come up with a compromise to the ordinance, which would require data centers to have buffer zones, and to use energy-efficient backup generators, among other mandates.
Carter also said the County Council could use a “cooling off period.”
“I think we just need to take a step back, look at the data, look at the facts, make compromises where they’re appropriate so that we can assure that we’re still doing the right thing here,” Carter said.
He expects to revisit the debate in January.
Carter first proposed the sweeping set of rules four months ago amid a backlash to a developer’s plan to build a massive, power hungry data center on about 580 acres north of the Delaware City Refinery.
At the time, many residents and elected officials feared the facility would exacerbate an energy crunch that was already impacting the region.
By October, the public sentiment may have shifted after powerful labor unions expressed support for the plan.
What followed were several proposed amendments to Carter’s ordinance introduced during acrimonious county council meetings – one that even featured a councilman flipping off another.
Now, Carter said he is working with New Castle County planners to revise the legislation in a way that would incorporate parts of amendments previously put forward by his colleagues.
Still, opponents to the regulations fear that Carter’s ordinance could cause the state to lose the Delaware City data center project entirely, along with the tax revenue and jobs it would bring.
Council members Janet Kilpatrick and Tim Sheldon, both opponents of the legislation, each told Spotlight Delaware that they now agree with Carter that the council needs more time to find compromises.
“We got one shot at getting this right, and there’s got to be compromises on both sides,” Sheldon said.
Can the council find common ground?
In all, seven council members — Kilpatrick, Sheldon, Valerie George, George Smiley, Jea Street, Brandon Toole and Monique Williams-Johns — have voiced some degree of opposition to Carter’s legislation.
If all voted against it, the proposal would fail to pass the 13-member council.
Of the council members in opposition, most have expressed concern around the question of whether the new data center regulations could be applied to the Delaware City facility that is already awaiting county approval.
In response to the concern, Carter last month amended the ordinance by removing the clause that would have made the rules apply retroactively to the pending project. Still, some council members are not satisfied.
Kilpatrick said she thinks Carter did not make it clear in his legislation that the regulations would not apply to developers with plans already in the books.
Councilman Penrose Hollins agreed. He said Thursday that the new version “went too far” – even comparing it to cuts made to federal government programs made by Elon Musk earlier this year.
“It’s just overkill,” Hollins said.
Hollins’ comments appear to be a shift as he initially was a co-sponsor on Carter’s ordinance last summer.
Sheldon said he does not think he would support any part of Carter’s legislation except the ban on a type of cooling system for data centers that continuously pumps water in from the surrounding environment.
Council President Williams-Johns said she hoped the council could come to a compromise, and Councilman George Smiley said he doesn’t decide one way or another until he’s called for a vote.
Council members George, Street and Toole did not respond to requests for comment.