Press Statement
September 27, 2024
Let BIG TECH build data centers “anywhere in the world” but here
Statement of Frank Knapp Jr., President and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, in response to comments by Lilyn Hester, head of southeast external affairs and government relations for Google. Ms. Hesters is quoted as saying, “And when it comes to data centers, we can build anywhere in the world…So, when the state offers these incentives, like any other company, we will take the state up on those opportunities.” The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce has worked to keep utility costs as low as possible for small businesses since 2002 by intervening 11 times in rate hearings at the SC Public Service Commission.
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“There is something terribly obscene when the state of South Carolina and local governments give financial incentives to BIG TECH to build data centers here that require new gas plants resulting in the electric bills of small business and residential ratepayers to go up by 10% or more. Our tax dollars are being used to subsidize higher profits by companies like Google while increasing utility costs for the rest of us. We don’t need these data centers to be built here for South Carolinians and our businesses to benefit from artificial intelligence services. If data centers aren’t required to produce most of their energy needs with clean energy, let them build ‘anywhere in the world’ but here.”