CLOUDS ON THE RANGE
Before the Data Center Arrives
A practical guide for rural communities asking questions about data center development.
PDF · 18 pages · Free
WHAT’S INSIDE
Data center proposals can come with enormous numbers attached to them: electricity demand, water use, investment, new infrastructure, tax agreements and promises about economic development.This guide is designed to help rural residents, farmers, ranchers and community members know what to ask before the details become difficult to change.It covers water, power, infrastructure, public costs, tax incentives, expansion, transparency, agriculture and long-term community impacts.
It isn’t an argument for or against data centers. It’s a place to start asking better questions.
WHY I MADE THIS
I started Clouds on the Range because I wanted to understand what happens when data centers move into rural and agricultural communities.The deeper I got into the research, the more I realized how difficult it can be to see the whole picture. Information about water, electricity, infrastructure, taxes and land use can be scattered across different agencies, utilities, public records and technical documents.Most people shouldn’t have to spend months digging through all of that just to know what questions to ask about something being built in their community.So I made this guide as a starting point.
Chelsea M. Schulz
Clouds on the Range
ABOUT CLOUDS ON THE RANGE
Clouds on the Range is an independent research and reporting project examining what happens when data centers meet rural and agricultural communities, with a focus on water, power, infrastructure and the people already using these resources.