Newark-area resident Ken Grant has launched a petition drive in support of The $1.2 billion Data Centers project. The project involves construction of secure data center that would use heat from computer servers and natural gas to power the site. About 30 percent of the power could be sold.
Grant, a long-time champion of social media, launched a website and link to the online petition. Click here for the site.
The group, No Newark Power Plant has launched a website and petition drive of its own. Their effort has generated often sympathetic local media coverage. It has also led concerns that the opposition effort is threatening Delaware’s business climate at a time when employers are leaving the state.
At the same time, Newark-area resident Amy Roe is gathering petitions in a bid for the post of mayor, following the decision by Vance Funk to step down from the post. Roe, one of the leaders of the no power plant drive, is being backed by the Green Party, for the nonpartisan post. An election to fill the post is planned late next month.
Funk cited actions by opponents to a proposed Wawa store with gas pumps as one of the reasons for his decision to step down. At least a few of the opponents of the Data Centers have also been active in the Wawa opposition efforts.
Last week, DuPont spin-off Axalta announced the transfer of Delaware jobs to Philadelphia and neighboring Delaware County, Pa. Research jobs will stay in the state.
“It is my hope that this site will provide a place for reasonable dialogue on this proposal,” Grant wrote “You see, there’s an awful lot at stake here – more than the jobs and turning a brownfield into a productive center – if this project is sidelined, we could lose out on many, many opportunities in the future.”
Grant made reference to the early September information session that brought 300 people to a community center in the city. The meeting led to more than 200 questions that have been answered and are now available on The Data Centers website. Opponents have claimed the answers amount to a “green wash” and have not posted the Data Centers responses on their website.
Local legislators also organized a town hall meeting on the project, but did not invite representatives of the Data Centers.
Grant noted that the project would create approximately 5,000 construction jobs. Maintaining the business would create an additional 290 jobs, with salaries averaging $63,000 a year.
Ken Grant does not know what he is talking about. Come to City Council meeting on 10/28 and find out for yourselves how this whole thing has come about. By the way, I have never seen this man at any of the meetings.