New Orleans City Council moves toward data center ban
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The interior of an Amazon data center. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Web Services
City Council members took steps Wednesday toward banning data centers, crypto mining facilities and server farms in New Orleans.
Why it matters: A proposed data center in New Orleans East exposed gaps in city zoning laws and raised broader questions about whether data centers should be allowed at all.
The big picture: New Orleans East residents opposed the project Wednesday at a City Council meeting, citing concerns about extensive energy and water use.
- "We have heard you loud and clear," responded Councilmember Jason Hughes, saying he is "staunchly opposed" to the proposed data center.
- Added City Council President JP Morrell: "We welcome technology, we welcome investment, but we do not welcome being an experimental staging ground for new technology, especially when our water is precious."
Yes, but: Members say the city doesn't have a clear definition of data centers in the zoning law, creating loopholes.
- "To ban data centers, you have to define them," Morrell said.
- They passed a one-year moratorium on data centers while the City Planning Commission studies how to classify them.
Between the lines: Morrell said he's trying to avoid a repeat of the city's long legal fight over short-term rentals, which were regulated only after becoming widespread.
Catch up quick: MS Solar Grid Data met with residents in December about a data center near Interstate 10 and Read Boulevard in the Little Woods area, according to WWL's Mike McDaniel.
- The project is described as a "prefabricated office building for computers," the report says.
- Planning commission officials said Wednesday the company has not formally applied for the project, but the moratorium would stop that for at least a year.
- A representative from the company was not at Wednesday's meeting.
How it works: Artificial intelligence requires massive amounts of electricity to power the computing processes behind it, driving demand for companies to build data centers to house the servers and computing equipment, writes Axios' Chelsea Brasted.
- Companies "are hunting for huge swaths of flat land with access to natural gas and transmission lines, landing them on the doorstep of oil-and-gas country, including Louisiana's Haynesville Shale," Jennifer Hiller writes in the Wall Street Journal.
Zoom in: Mayor Helena Moreno in a social media post said she's opposed to the data center and is working to "prevent projects like this from happening in our neighborhoods."
Meanwhile, Meta is building a $27 billion data center called Hyperion in north Louisiana.
- Entergy will have to build three power plants to supply it, a move that has alarmed critics.
What's next: The City Planning Commission will issue a report and host a public meeting in the next two months, officials estimate.
- Then the council can vote on a permanent ban. The entire process is expected to take four to five months.
- In the meantime, there will be a grassroots community meeting at 2:30pm Saturday for residents who want to organize against the data center.