Ohio residents are taking a stand against the proliferation of data centers in their state. A petition to ban data centers in Ohio, led by the group ConserveOhio, recently announced that it would not be submitting its petition this year due to not meeting the required 413,000 signatures by the July 1 deadline.

Local Resistance

However, this has not deterred the group, which is now focusing on smaller-scale petitions at the local level. Volunteers are working to collect signatures for petitions in specific townships, such as Sunbury, to prohibit the construction of large-scale data centers.

The Sunbury City Council has already passed a moratorium on a specific Amazon Web Services data center, and residents are actively collecting signatures for a petition to allow voters to decide on the issue. ConserveOhio has approximately five such active petitions in local communities throughout the state.

Statewide Impact

Ohio is already home to over 200 data centers, with 139 of them located in Columbus. The state has the sixth most data centers in the country, and critics argue that these centers have negative impacts on the environment and local communities.

While the petition may not be on the ballot this year, the group remains hopeful that it will make it onto the ballot for the 2027 general election. In the meantime, local communities are fighting back against data center development, with some towns passing moratoriums on data centers.

Original reporting: Matter News (Columbus) — read the source article.