{"id":284449,"date":"2026-05-26T07:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/284449\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:38:12","slug":"petition-grows-as-residents-warn-escambia-county-data-center-could-strain-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/284449\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition grows as residents warn Escambia County data center could strain resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — In a report last week, WEAR News told you a data center company is in active negotiations with Escambia County <\/a>to build a facility here.<\/p>\n

Florida West Economic Development says the center would be a couple hundred thousand square feet– which they say is on the smaller side compared to data centers nationwide.<\/p>\n

They say it would be built somewhere in the middle of the county.<\/p>\n

Across the country, these data center proposals have been sparking mass controversy.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want a data center big, small, or in between,” anti-data center advocate Brandy Johnson said. “It is not in the best interest. We have to protect our resources and where we live and raise our children.”<\/p>\n

Hundreds have signed a petition– mobilizing against the idea.<\/p>\n

“These signatures will be taken to the county commissioners because ultimately they’re elected to represent our best interest, and as of right now a data center is not in the best interest of the citizens of Escambia County,” Johnson said. <\/p>\n

From coast to coast– data centers are popping up left and right.<\/p>\n

“Let me be clear: we do not want a data center,” Greenville, Wisconsin, resident Melanie Tetzloff said. <\/p>\n

Our sister stations have been at packed meetings where residents are expressing concerns being voiced here.<\/p>\n

“To know they’re trying to put one in our own backyard is a very scary situation,” Johnson said. <\/p>\n

The CEO of Florida West Economic Development said where the placement of one of these facilities would be strategic.<\/p>\n

“We would be very considerate of where they need to go,” Florida West Economic Development CEO Chris Plate said. “You would typically not put them close to residential density; you would want to put them a little further out.”<\/p>\n

In other communties– data centers built in rural areas have been a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

“I moved out to the country to get away from traffic. “Why am I being penalized?” Texas data center nearby resident Rosalie Gray said. <\/p>\n

WEAR News asked Escambia County commissioners to weigh in.<\/p>\n

Steve Stroberger says he sees data centers as an opportunity for high-paying jobs and diversification of our economy.<\/p>\n

He says the county should always be open to economic development opportunities, but he does have concerns about power consumption– water usage, and impact on surrounding communities.<\/p>\n

This month, Governor DeSantis signed a new law helping to protect those resources.<\/p>\n

“You should not pay one more red cent for electricity because of a hyperscale data center as an individual,” DeSantis said. <\/p>\n

For Escambia County residents like Johnson, that isn’t enough to bring peace of mind.<\/p>\n

“This is such a critical situation across the entire country,” Johnson said. “To know that now they’re considering here, our home, we can’t let that stand.”<\/p>\n

Johnson says Escambia County residents who are against the data center plan intend to speak at the next county commission meeting on June 17.<\/p>\n

Individuals wishing to view or sign the petition can do so here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — In a report last week, WEAR News told you a data center company is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-284449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}