Data centers cancelled in Blakely Pennsylvania and Menomonie Wisconsin.
Opposition to data centers is making headway against the AI bubble environmental assault.
Menomonie Wisconsin is the rural town in western Wisconsin that had a public meeting where I was able to listen to the public comments of the citizenry and do some commentary on my podcast.
Many of the citizens who spoke at that meeting figured the data center project was inevitable, but the mayor has put the stops on it reportedly because of public opposition being so great. More than 100 people were also reported to be outside the meeting protesting the proposed data center when the mayor announced the no. That's a lot in a town of about 17k residents.
But there was still someone on the town council who continued to fearmonger to the press that the job creators will not bestow upon the town their horrendous environment wrecking projects. When people hand-wring and whine like that it almost seems like they personally are worried about losing out on something personally rather than the town, which clearly is against it.
screenshot of tv report from WEAU in Wisconsin showing people with t-shirts, buttons, and signs that read no data center with the red circle and cross symbol over the words.
WEAU 13 - Proposed Menomonie data center put on hold By WEAU Staff Published: Sep. 22, 2025 at 9:34 PM EDT “I knew he was going to make an announcement about pausing the data center, ” Brennan said after the meeting. “Although I agree that we need more information about who the company is, what the project entails, and what it means for our community, by doing a cease and desist at this time in the way he did it just gives a bad reputation to Menomonie and basically gives a big middle finger to companies that we are closed for business.”
I wish our mayor and our county commissioners would give a big middle finger to these data center companies, that's for sure. But given past behaviour by politicians here especially with regards to the data centers, I think it's going to take a lot of pressure. I still haven't gotten any responses from the officials I've asked about if they've signed non-disclosure agreements.
But at least the data center in Blakely was rejected.
The status is unclear for the one in Archbald Pennsylvania, owned by the same people, that's been proposed to be situated adjacent to a beloved community park that is adjacent to a state park with trails on the other side. The park hosts a lot of youth sports and is very popular with birders since it attracts a lot of birds, especially during migration. The proposed site is also adjacent to a newly developed neighborhood of town homes and a neighborhood of single family homes, some built on streets named after birds. Powell Developments calls this "The Highlands at Archbald" and it includes 2 streets of town homes as well. The sale prices are around $400k for a townhouse. One of the new construction single family homes sold in 2023 for over $400k. The median home price is $227,125 in 2025 in Lackawanna County, so not surprising these houses are described as luxury accommodations.
So they're talking about zeroing out the home values for an entire luxury development. That's a lot of home value to get zeroed out a year after someone purchases an expensive property in this area. And that's what happens so close to these data centers.
I Live 500 Feet From A Bitcoin Mine. My Life Is Hell. More Perfect Union Jul 24, 2025 “Who would buy this place? You have to disclose? My property value has gone down 75%, and that’s according to Hood County Appraisal District. The reality is, my property value is worthless.”
The New York Times - Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door By Eli Tan Visuals by Dustin Chambers Reporting from Newton County, Ga. Published July 14, 2025 Updated July 16, 2025 The hardest part, Ms. Morris said, is that the house now has just one usable bathroom, which they have to share with her adult son Jon, 48, who has Down syndrome. They tried selling the house, with no luck.
Jim Marzolino has been reported to be into bitcoin as a hobby, so it's not unreasonable to expect that these proposed facilities in Lackawanna County would in fact be bitcoin printing facilities. Cryptocurrency operations are reportedly some of the worst data centers to live near in terms of noise pollution and risks to the electric grid. The data center in Carbon County is a bitcoin printing facility that's been approved to burn tires to fuel the operation. And I've heard that there's no realistic way to really switch a bitcoin data center to another data center purpose.
The newspaper reports that there are still 6 data center proposals active in Lackawanna County, after the one in Blakely was withdrawn. 3 in Archbald, 2 in Jessup, and one proposed in Clifton & Covington. The plans for data centers in Jessup seem to keep adding up though.
Developer shifts from warehouse to data center by power plant in Jessup By Frank Lesnefsky | | The Times-Tribune UPDATED: September 16, 2025 at 5:54 PM EDT The rapid rise of data center proposals in the Midvalley continues as a West Conshohocken developer looks to change its plans from a warehouse to a nearly 500,000-square-foot data center on Sunnyside Road next to the Lackawanna Energy Center. Catalyst Commercial Development LLC, the firm behind a proposal to build six data centers along Breaker Street, now wants to build a 487,000-square-foot data center near the intersection of Sunnyside Road and Alberigi Drive, according to an Aug. 13 land development application and accompanying plans obtained by The Times-Tribune via a Right to Know Law request.
This data center planned would be situated within a half mile of multiple populous neighborhoods in Jessup and the east side of Archbald, where I know many working class families have lived in these neighborhoods over multiple generations to try and hang onto a decent small town quiet life.