There is much to fight for. There is much to win. And one fight now is to protect communities and the precious land and water from destructive extractive companies – arriving in the form of data centers – and spreading like locusts. And the Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability are fighting!
Dr. Rania Masric (NCEJN) speaking to the Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability group on the impacts of Data Centers in Rocky Mount (November 25, 2025) Watch the full meeting here
A community meeting on the impacts of data centers was held on November 25. (Reminder: Energy Storage Solutions is proposing a $19 billion, 900 mega-watt data center. A twin project is also planned for Fayetteville.) More than 600 people watched the event online, and almost 50 people were in attendance.
Watch my presentation and the heated Q&A with the assistant manager of the county.
Seeing Red! Ms Janice (the Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability group) giving the first public comment at the Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners Meeting in Tarboro (December 1, 2025). Watch the full session here
On December 1st, we filled the Edgecombe County Commissioners’ meeting, wearing red to show opposition to the sale of public lands to Energy Storage Solutions for the construction of a data center. Almost everyone spoke in opposition, and all the submitted written comments were also in opposition to the sale.
Janice Bulluck began, presenting a petition signed by almost 180 local residents (257 total) opposing the sale. “Listen to the people,” she admonished.
Several speakers made it clear that they will remember the commissioners if they vote for the sale. “We will primary you in the elections,” said one. “We will get you out of here,” said another.
Kendrick Ransome and Marquette Dickens, both from a wonderful organization called Freedom Org, spoke about what the county actually needs – support for farmers and investment in agriculture. Approximately 155 acres of farmland would be taken over by this data center, while Edgecombe County, the most populous Black majority county in North Carolina, suffers from food apartheid.
James (Jim) Wrenn said that “data centers of the 2020s are like the hog farms and slaughterhouses of the 1990s. … Just as with the Regional Hazardous Waste Dump near Conetoe we stopped in 1988, and the IBP Hog Slaughterhouse we stopped in Kingsboro in 1996, [do not allow] Edgecombe County to be a sacrifice zone.”
Don Cavellini reminded us all that another data center had been stopped. NOTRA “put the final ‘nail in the coffin’ of cryptocurrency in Pitt County” by preventing Compute North from building its data center.
My written comments to the County are available here, and video of the public comment here. I include my oral comments to the County Commissioners below.
Group Photo of the Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability Group, their allies + NCEJN at the Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners Meeting (December 1, 2025)
Good evening. My name is Rania Masri, co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. I live in Wake County, and I’m here because what ails Edgecombe County ails us all in NC.
I’m here today to urge you to reject the sale of public land to Energy Storage Solutions for the proposed Kingsboro data center and energy-generation facility.
This project is being presented as a simple data center. It is not. According to the company’s own documents, this facility may drill and burn natural gas onsite, require a gas pipeline, and operate large diesel generators—potentially around the clock. That means the project is essentially a major off-grid industrial power plant.
Natural-gas combustion and diesel emissions pose serious health risks—worsening asthma, heart disease, and respiratory illness. Diesel emissions are recognized as a Group 1 carcinogen. These risks fall hardest on communities already experiencing health disparities, including Edgecombe County. Before any land is sold, the public deserves answers to basic questions: How many generators? What emissions? What fire-safety plans? And does the local fire department have the resources to respond to a data-center fire?
A second major concern is water. Data centers require enormous volumes of drinking water—typically 3 to 5 million gallons per day. The company claims it will use only 500,000 gallons per day, a number far below industry norms and offered with no documentation – and still a very significant and large number considering we are in a drought! According to the DEQ, 92 of our state’s 100 counties are in drought, and Edgecombe County is in severe drought. We simply cannot gamble with our most essential resource.
Data centers also use chemicals that contribute to PFAS contamination—and, according to the EPA, there is no safe level of PFAS exposure. So we must ask: What chemicals will be used? What will be discharged? Where will the water come from? Will water use be tracked and enforced?
The community will also face constant noise. The company says noise will not exceed 60 decibels, but 60 decibels continuously is considered harmful. Chronic noise at these levels increases hypertension, heart disease, and sleep disruption—especially harming children.
And while the public is asked to tolerate these risks, the number of jobs promised is deeply misleading. The company claims 500 jobs, yet its own documents show only 69 permanent positions, a third of which are security or janitorial. Very few are high-skill, high-pay jobs. Data centers offer 100 times fewer jobs per megawatt than other industrial uses. Actually, for every $1.95 million spent subsidizing a data center, one permanent job is produced. This is not economic development; it is corporate welfare.
Finally, this project is likely to be a major financial loss for the county. In our state, data centers receive broad state tax exemptions, and Energy Storage Solutions expects hundreds of millions in tax credits. Their projected $75 million in annual tax revenue is unrealistic; their own documents show that after accelerated depreciation, by year seven they may pay no local property taxes at all.
In Lenoir, Google’s data center paid only $5 million in county taxes over 10 years but received $73 million back in tax rebates—14 times what the county received. The city also abated $51 million in property taxes over eight years.
From a strict financial perspective, this project will be a loss to the county and to the state, and not a gain. The numbers are clear.
Edgecombe County deserves better—development that protects community health, safeguards our water, and strengthens our economy. This project does none of those things. It actually does the very opposite! I urge you to vote NO on the sale of this public land.
Updates On the Fight Against Data Centers: Edgecombe County
Dr. Rania Masri, NCEJN Co-Director
There is much to fight for. There is much to win. And one fight now is to protect communities and the precious land and water from destructive extractive companies – arriving in the form of data centers – and spreading like locusts. And the Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability are fighting!
A community meeting on the impacts of data centers was held on November 25. (Reminder: Energy Storage Solutions is proposing a $19 billion, 900 mega-watt data center. A twin project is also planned for Fayetteville.) More than 600 people watched the event online, and almost 50 people were in attendance.
Watch my presentation and the heated Q&A with the assistant manager of the county.
Follow Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability on Facebook and support their work!
On December 1st, we filled the Edgecombe County Commissioners’ meeting, wearing red to show opposition to the sale of public lands to Energy Storage Solutions for the construction of a data center. Almost everyone spoke in opposition, and all the submitted written comments were also in opposition to the sale.
Janice Bulluck began, presenting a petition signed by almost 180 local residents (257 total) opposing the sale. “Listen to the people,” she admonished.
Several speakers made it clear that they will remember the commissioners if they vote for the sale. “We will primary you in the elections,” said one. “We will get you out of here,” said another.
Kendrick Ransome and Marquette Dickens, both from a wonderful organization called Freedom Org, spoke about what the county actually needs – support for farmers and investment in agriculture. Approximately 155 acres of farmland would be taken over by this data center, while Edgecombe County, the most populous Black majority county in North Carolina, suffers from food apartheid.
James (Jim) Wrenn said that “data centers of the 2020s are like the hog farms and slaughterhouses of the 1990s. … Just as with the Regional Hazardous Waste Dump near Conetoe we stopped in 1988, and the IBP Hog Slaughterhouse we stopped in Kingsboro in 1996, [do not allow] Edgecombe County to be a sacrifice zone.”
Don Cavellini reminded us all that another data center had been stopped. NOTRA “put the final ‘nail in the coffin’ of cryptocurrency in Pitt County” by preventing Compute North from building its data center.
My written comments to the County are available here, and video of the public comment here. I include my oral comments to the County Commissioners below.
The fight continues! Reach out to Rania.
Good evening. My name is Rania Masri, co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. I live in Wake County, and I’m here because what ails Edgecombe County ails us all in NC.
I’m here today to urge you to reject the sale of public land to Energy Storage Solutions for the proposed Kingsboro data center and energy-generation facility.
This project is being presented as a simple data center. It is not. According to the company’s own documents, this facility may drill and burn natural gas onsite, require a gas pipeline, and operate large diesel generators—potentially around the clock. That means the project is essentially a major off-grid industrial power plant.
Natural-gas combustion and diesel emissions pose serious health risks—worsening asthma, heart disease, and respiratory illness. Diesel emissions are recognized as a Group 1 carcinogen. These risks fall hardest on communities already experiencing health disparities, including Edgecombe County. Before any land is sold, the public deserves answers to basic questions: How many generators? What emissions? What fire-safety plans? And does the local fire department have the resources to respond to a data-center fire?
A second major concern is water. Data centers require enormous volumes of drinking water—typically 3 to 5 million gallons per day. The company claims it will use only 500,000 gallons per day, a number far below industry norms and offered with no documentation – and still a very significant and large number considering we are in a drought! According to the DEQ, 92 of our state’s 100 counties are in drought, and Edgecombe County is in severe drought. We simply cannot gamble with our most essential resource.
Data centers also use chemicals that contribute to PFAS contamination—and, according to the EPA, there is no safe level of PFAS exposure. So we must ask: What chemicals will be used? What will be discharged? Where will the water come from? Will water use be tracked and enforced?
The community will also face constant noise. The company says noise will not exceed 60 decibels, but 60 decibels continuously is considered harmful. Chronic noise at these levels increases hypertension, heart disease, and sleep disruption—especially harming children.
And while the public is asked to tolerate these risks, the number of jobs promised is deeply misleading. The company claims 500 jobs, yet its own documents show only 69 permanent positions, a third of which are security or janitorial. Very few are high-skill, high-pay jobs. Data centers offer 100 times fewer jobs per megawatt than other industrial uses. Actually, for every $1.95 million spent subsidizing a data center, one permanent job is produced. This is not economic development; it is corporate welfare.
Finally, this project is likely to be a major financial loss for the county. In our state, data centers receive broad state tax exemptions, and Energy Storage Solutions expects hundreds of millions in tax credits. Their projected $75 million in annual tax revenue is unrealistic; their own documents show that after accelerated depreciation, by year seven they may pay no local property taxes at all.
In Lenoir, Google’s data center paid only $5 million in county taxes over 10 years but received $73 million back in tax rebates—14 times what the county received. The city also abated $51 million in property taxes over eight years.
From a strict financial perspective, this project will be a loss to the county and to the state, and not a gain. The numbers are clear.
Edgecombe County deserves better—development that protects community health, safeguards our water, and strengthens our economy. This project does none of those things. It actually does the very opposite! I urge you to vote NO on the sale of this public land.
Thank you.
Other News & Reflections
NCEJN’s Summit 2025
We Are Still Here: 27 Years of Holding Our Ground Resisting Injustice, Organizing the People, Mapping the Path, Building Power To Register visit: tinyurl.com/ncejn-summit2025-register Address: Franklinton Center At Bricks
Community Resources – ICE + CBP
Recursos comunitarios – ICE + La Patrulla Fronteriza (CBP)
In A Moment of Clarity, The Veil Has Fallen
Rania Masri, NCEJN Director of Organizing and Policy We are in a moment of clarity: the veil has fallen. The U.S. federal administration today is openly and brazenly showcasing its