On the Ground at the “National” Day of Protests Against Data Centers

By Paul Steidler: After a month of hype, Humans First, a group claiming to represent many “conservatives” opposed to data centers is today holding a national day of protest at 125 or so locations.

Judging by the one I attended in Charles Town, West Virginia, and other factors, the organization at best is off to a slow start.

I wanted to go to a demonstration near me and figured it would be a short drive. I live a few miles from Loudoun County, Virginia which has hundreds of operating and proposed data centers, the highest concentration in the country.

However, there were no demonstrations in Loudoun County. So, I wound up driving nearly an hour one way to Charles Town, most of that time through Loudoun County.

The Charles Town demonstration had two activists when it started at 10:30 a.m. It peaked at 12-15 protesters before I left after 11:00 a.m. It was not clear if a few people standing nearby were part of the event. The accompanying photo was taken about 10 minutes into the demonstration.

The demonstrators were respectful and held signs while seldom speaking. Nearly all were senior citizens. A German television station was there, but apparently no other press.

Humans First was founded by Amy Kremer, a pioneer of the Tea Party movement that started in 2009 and changed American politics. Humans First has received fawning press coverage from Axios, The Washington Post, Reuters, and others.

Here are three takeaways from today’s event.

There is no evidence that Humans First is a conservative organization. Among the demonstrators in Charles Town, there was one who briefly chanted loudly “No GOP data centers.” Another wore a t-shirt for a Democratic candidate for the West Virginia state legislature. As a gentlemen who stood next to me for a minute across the street watching the demonstrators said, “I guess they got tired of No Kings.”

Loudoun County has room for many, many more data centers. Loudoun County is a large, picturesque, beautiful area. It is a pleasure to drive through. It has vast open space for more data centers and other businesses. And with data centers keeping its property taxes low, and property values high, it has an excellent quality of life and will continue to attract more people.

Humans First is Benefitting From Data Centers. The organizing force for today’s event was Humans First website, the e-mails and texts sent to various people to come to the protests, and GPS being used to help people get there. None of that is possible without data centers. Humans First might want to take that into account in the future.