'Left in the dark': Pushback builds against NJ data center
The short version: Vineland residents learned about a 2.6M-sq-ft, 300MW gas-powered data center only after construction began — that's the real story here.
Our Take
Credit to NJ Spotlight News for getting Vineland residents on camera, because the sequence of events they're describing is the same one we see nationwide: a developer and a hyperscaler quietly ink a $17 billion deal, permits move through local channels, and the people who'll live next to a facility the size of 45 football fields find out from social media instead of a public hearing. DataOne says 300 megawatts — enough for 65,000 homes — will come 85% from on-site natural gas. That's not a footnote, that's a new power plant's worth of emissions sited in a community that apparently had little say in the matter.
The "closed-loop, no water" claim is worth watching closely too. Zero-water cooling claims are becoming a standard talking point in data center pitches, and they deserve scrutiny over the full life of the facility, not just at groundbreaking. Same goes for who actually pays for the gas infrastructure, the grid upgrades, and any tax abatements DataOne secured to land this deal — those numbers rarely get the same headline treatment as the jobs projections.
Vineland is now a case study in what happens when a build-first, explain-later approach meets a community that wants receipts. Check our facility map to see what's landing near you, and if you want to push for the kind of disclosure Vineland residents are demanding, our take-action page has a place to start.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of NJ Spotlight News, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.