Friday, on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) discussed the opposition to an OpenAI and NVIDIA $500 billion data center in Ohio.
The Ohio Republican accused the Chinese government of ginning up that opposition with “propaganda” in Ohio.
“Let’s bring in Ohio Congressman Michael Rulli,” co-host Cheryl Casone said. “He is a member of the House Energy Committee. Congressman, your thoughts, and what you are hearing from your constituents in Ohio about this project.”
Rulli replied, “Well, good morning, Cheryl. I mean, we’re hearing a lot about the A.I. centers and data centers in particular. We’ve been working in the district really hard. It’s about a three and a half hour drive to top the bottom of the district. Most of my constituents do not like data centers. They don’t want them. But I have a little stump speech, I say to all of them, please educate yourself. When you go to these town halls or you go to these meetings and they’re talking about data centers, you have to know what you’re talking about. First step, behind or in front of the meter, please understand what that means. In front of the meter means you pay for it. Behind the meter means the company pays for it. When you look at their water system, is it a self-contained water system? That means all the water that they use for the facility will be self-contained. That will be no cost to you. If they use the city’s water, there will be cost to you. They have to make sure that they have the environment under control. They shouldn’t put them on waste lands, brown fields, old, like textile plants, or old steel mills. Keep them out of the corn fields. Keep them out of the neighborhoods. We need to do better. China is going to win this war, Cheryl.”
Casone said, “It’s interesting you mentioned this because we’ve done reporting on this on our network about using existing structures, using abandoned, whether it’s a factory or an abandoned office building, use existing structures instead of doing new builds out, to your point, and say a cornfield. Do you think that there is going to be a vote on this when you return to Washington?”
Rulli answered, “I think there is definitely a possibility of a vote, I think Speaker Johnson really is — he has his finger on the pulse of America, and all of our members are talking about this. I’ve talked to a dozen members. It’s the number one subject when you go out into the field. It’s ironic. It’s even more of a desires topic than even affordability. People are just worried. The fears are that the temperature could rise, or there could be cancer problems, or they’re going to put them in your neighborhood, or destroy our cornfields. All those subjects need to be addressed. Any elected official that thinks they’re just going to skirt around that, now, there is so many positives. We know that A.I. is going to help cure cancer. We know that we’re going to beat everybody as far as — whether it’s quantum theory or quantum easing, or whether it’s to cybersecurity, or all the different things with drone technology. But we have to do better at it. The CCP has infiltrated Ohio with propaganda against this.”
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