@karl.rominger: DATA CENTERS: SOMEBODY HAS TO LIVE NEXT DOOR Tonight I’m at the Middlesex Township Board of Supervisors meeting, talking with residents about the proposed PAX-1 data center. My question is simple: What do you think about a data center coming to your community? I’m not reflexively anti-data center. In fact, I think America probably needs a major buildout of computing infrastructure. AI, cloud computing, medicine, banking, national defense and the digital economy all require enormous computing power. The data centers have to go somewhere. But “somewhere else” can’t always be the answer—and neither can telling local residents to simply absorb the consequences because America needs more AI. There is a societal need for this infrastructure. There is also a local cost. Who pays for the power and transmission upgrades? The roads? What about noise, water, emergency services and neighboring property values? How many permanent jobs are created, and how much tax revenue actually stays here? Most importantly: are the people receiving the economic benefits also paying the costs? “NIMBY” shouldn’t end the discussion. But neither should “America needs AI” become a blank check allowing trillion-dollar companies to privatize the profits while pushing infrastructure costs onto local communities. If these facilities are strategically important, build them—but build the power, roads and transmission they require. Protect neighbors. Mitigate the impacts. Create meaningful community benefits. And make the project pay its fair share. That’s the conversation I’m looking for tonight. Support it? Tell me why. Oppose it? Tell me why. Live next door? I especially want to hear from you. Maybe this issue is a little more complicated than a yard sign. Follow Karl for more conversations from where the story is actually happening. #KarlTalks #DataCenters #MiddlesexTownship #CumberlandCounty #Pennsylvaniia

Karl Rominger

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Thursday 20 August 2026 00:43:47 GMT