David Jolly has already made it clear he’s a critic of large-scale data centers, for which Floridians continue to express disapproval up and down the state.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate had already said that if elected in November, he’d issue a one-year moratorium on construction of these facilities. But after visiting a region of Northern Virginia this week with the highest density of data centers in the country, he says he’s seen first-hand the economic and public health disruption they inflict on communities and that it’s not what he wants to see in the Sunshine State.
“I visited a family with a home, you open the door and you’re hit with the noise pollution,” he said Friday after attending an event with Habitat for Humanity in Pinellas County. “You walk outside, you see the turbines that are fueling the energy. Down the street, there were four kids who developed respiratory conditions who had to seek medical help.”
Data centers also are deflating real estate prices in their communities, Jolly said. He learned of a home near a massive data center that sat on the market for nearly a year and ended up selling for $80,000 below list price.
“Let’s be honest about what’s happening in Florida,” he said. “Big tech, big data, the utilities are rushing into a relatively unregulated environment, or at least a favorably regulated environment. And that’s why you’re seeing voters who feel like they don’t have the economic or political power to push back, stand up, and say, ‘Please don’t do this.’
Local communities in Florida continue to say they don’t want data centers. This week, the Orange County Commission advanced a plan to temporarily ban data center development. Commissioners reached a consensus for a 6-to-18 month moratorium, depending on how long county staff need to research the potential harms, according to Orlando Weekly.
Three local governments in Florida have permanently banned construction of data centers, and 19 are pausing such development, according to FloridaDataCenters.org.
Already operating
However, 12 data centers are already operating in Florida and another eight are planned, according to Cleanview, a marketing intelligence company. The Florida Legislature approved and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation earlier this year that bans public utilities from passing the electricity costs of data centers onto residential and small business customers. It also preserved local authority over zoning, permitting, and land use for such centers, and gives local governments authority to set strict standards or deny projects.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds has expressed support for letting local governments decide whether they want to construct data centers. He has dismissed Jolly’s one-year moratorium as “politics.”
And Donalds said in Tampa earlier this month that construction of data centers would not resemble what Jolly visited this week.
“In Northern Virginia, they built them next to apartment complexes and residential neighborhoods,” he said. “We’re not going to allow that in Florida. … If you’re going to do it, just do it a couple of miles down the road. Don’t do it in residential neighborhoods.”
Advocates for data centers say they are needed in the United States, lest this country lose the race for AI superiority to China. The strongest advocate for that position is President Donald Trump. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing data center-related proposals covering at least 17,600 acres of public land across six states — Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming, the Washington Sun reported Friday.
Jolly says he’s perfectly fine if the other 49 states build data centers — just not Florida.
“There is no long-term economic impact from the data centers. There is the upfront construction jobs, but that there’s not the legacy economic impact that actually justifies the disruption of a community,” he said.
“Look I do think that our national policymakers do need to work through some things to the extent that it’s a national security strategy. Let the White House and the Congress figure it out. But as Florida and Florida voters, we’re saying don’t build them here, let the other 49 states build them. It doesn’t hurt our national security strategy to say no to data centers in Florida.”
The Donalds campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
