Citizens say NO to proposed Louisville Data Center

Mill Creek Power Plant pollution; referenced in the testimonies.

As reported on Fastzone in early July, planning for data centers is in progress.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission held meetings this month in Lexington and Louisville. The Commission, headed by former Democrat state representative Angie Hatton (D-94), asked for public comments and provided information on how to comment online and follow the project. The file docket is here.

Below are two transcripts from speakers at the Louisville meeting on July 14. The full hearing can be viewed on YouTube..

Kurt Wallace:

I wanted to discuss some of the issues, that LG&E has sidestepped. I've driven by the Mill Creek Power site many times and called LG&E about toxic emissions and asked them to contact the EPA and file a report, because I could smell and I could taste the air quality as I drove past that.

IU (unclear) has a EPA uh center. They have confirmed that 40 miles away in Oldham County, barium drops out of the sky from that site. And so we're talking about adding another 500 megawatts to that power generation site or any other. You're talking about another -uh- large increase of particulate matter containing arsenic, barium, and other toxic elements that would drop from the sky.

It's like putting a teaspoon of hot cocoa or chocolate in a glass of milk. The more you add, eventually it starts to drop; and the air can't support the large amount of particulates that's going into the sky.

So, what does this do? It's xylene. It's the diesel exhaust for the backup generators — benzene, kerosene, particulate matter, poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic and barium. And some of the effects of those are: asthma, premature birth, brain pathology, infant blindness, uh- immune disruption, sleep apnea, sudden infant death syndrome, neurotoxicity, fetal toxicity, low birth weight, developmental delay, cognitive impairment, blindness, neurological harm, pediatric asthma, epigenetic injury, fetal growth restriction, neuro-behavior toxicity, developmental neurotoxicity, cancer, reduced fetal developmental neurotoxicity, cancer, reduced fetal viability, Teratogenic effects, birth defects, neurotoxicity, delayed development, viability, Teratogenic effects, birth defects, neurotoxicity, delayed development.

And we're talking about putting this data center —which would benefit from this increase in energy in an area that's already disadvantaged from toxic pollution. And so we're talking about injuring the next generation and the next generation after that, based on a proposal by LG&E which --has not shown the real harm to offset its alleged need.

There is not a need for this center. So I would encourage the public service commission to vote NO. And should you fail to protect the people, this is formal notice of personal and individual liability for harm arising from data center projects and related utility actions. This is submitted by a member of the public attending this meeting and I don't claim to represent anyone else, because you have a duty under your section 228 oath to protect the rights of the people, limit government interference in those rights, and provide benefit only with the consent of the people. We don't consent.

Consent is not present. Continuing action without informed voluntary consent constitutes coercion. That's a police state.

Coercion and color-of-law violations violate your oath under section 228. We don't even know if this is a military operation. Stargate, the —advanced, uh, collection of data, the synthesis of data, the biometric collection. How is this data being used? Some of these issues have been raised, but LG&E and the developers have been silent.

So the petition for remedy is that due to the grave risks associated with these hyperscale data centers from injury and death, —EMF/RF energy— release destruction to pollinators and other harms-- We are demanding that you accept 100 times a project cost as your personal individual liability and it'll remain on you personally and on the office until the harm has been mitigated.

These data centers and what LG&E is proposing is not sufficiently bonded. So you will need to personally take that bond to protect all of us. If you make a decision to move forward with the LGE application, you have that liability. And we don't want you to have to have that liability, but that's your decision. You represent us and we're asking you to defend us. Thank you.

Charles Zoeller:

My name is Charles Zoeller. I am here because I live within two miles of Mill Creek. I bought there over 30 years ago.

What you all are proposing —or the application to you all— is going to ruin my way of life. Because the PPG allowed LG&E to put in smart meters, I've lost trees. I don't have birds or bees. I don't have flowers around my house because of all the smart meters that are running. They now have a liability against them, because I told them not to put them in around my house.

You all were given the authority by the Kentucky Constitution at section 195 to control corporations. They're not to take away the people's rights. But yet they continue to do that. They damage us by the radiation that those towers and the smart meters put out. I have been —for the last 30 years— removing all that stuff out of my house and trying to keep it out.

But y'all keep allowing them to put more in. What are you going to do with the data centers? The data centers have already proven harm. Go to UofL and they will tell you the education goes down. The people get sicker. Everybody in this room knows that radiation produces cancer. But yet we do nothing —or you do nothing— to stop it.

So I'm asking you to figure out a way to stop it. I'm also looking at the fact that you as a member of the PSC also took the oath to the Kentucky Constitution called ‘228’. The remedy to 228 is 229. But you all are charged with defending and protecting the people's rights from section 1 to section 28. And anything that's repugnant to that section is to be ignored, reviewed, and rebuked.

In one section there, it says absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty, and property of free men exists nowhere in a republic. Not even amongst the largest majority.

That means all these people out here have a right to enjoy their life, their property. But yet what LG&E does with their electricity— they take that away. They don't do anything to protect the people.

And you say, "Well, that's going to cost something." Sometimes that's called the cost of doing business. But the rate increase that you all have looked at that's on this list that I got says it can go into effect on July 1. So are I'm going to ask you all a question. Are you all going to allow them to increase the rates? Because July 1, 2025 is already passed. That is a violation of the Constitution to allow them to do that kind of thing. That's retroactive.

You all have to stand up with Backbone and tell them what they can and cannot do. A gentleman has already talked here to this group about investments, and they're using our money to make investments so that they can make more money. I think you ought to go and take all of the presidents of these corporations and chop their bonuses off and tell them they can't charge more than something that's reasonable to protect the people.

And I'm also going to say that from this time on, if something is not done to help the people, there is a liability that's going to be created by this business that you will have to assume some personal and public liability for. That's all.