‘People power’ challenges Ennis data centre
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Opponents of a data centre planned for Ennis, Co Clare, say they will mount a "sophisticated and multi-faceted legal strategy" in an effort to stop its construction.
At a briefing, members of the local community heard that Futureproof Clare's strategy will “unfold over the years to come” in an effort to stop the centre's construction.
Futureproof Clare also outlined its objections to the €450m data centre, which was given planning permission this month.
Developer Art Data Centres has said 450 permanent jobs will be created when the campus is fully operational, and that up to 1,200 will be employed during construction.
Declan Owens, lawyer and chairperson of Ecojustice Ireland, said the environmental group could take legal action to prevent construction of the data centre.
“We must question the legitimacy of environmental law and regulation, formulated by the same people who fail and continue to fail to regulate the financial system,” said Mr Owens.
Mentioning how Fianna Fáil councillor Tom McNamara previously referred to the centre as a “goldmine” for the area, Mr Owens said that “it could be a goldmine of legal claims”.
“I think that there is a sense that we will throw the book at Clare County Council in terms of legal action, or maybe more like a law library.
“The submissions that Future for Clare has already made will be supported by a wide range of legal sources from, I would say, the Irish constitution, Irish environmental law, international environmental law, and persuasive authority.”
He said the case has been discussed on the merits of attaining legal action “all the way to the Supreme Court and beyond”.
An application to the International Rights of Nature Tribunal has also been investigated, he said.
“If there’s no justice, fossil capital will know no peace. People power is more powerful than electric generation power by the company that’s seeking to run Ennis data centre.”
Ruairi Ó Fathaigh, Futureproof Clare member, physicist, and engineer said: “The idea that this is going to be clean, healthy, and provide jobs and all the arguments that have been put forward just don't stack up when you actually look at the details."
The environmental group has estimated that the data centre on the Tulla Rd will consume as much electricity as 200,000 homes and emit 657,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, severely impacting local air quality.
Furthermore, there are concerns surrounding local ecosystems and the impact on local waterways, as well as the lack of well-paid jobs it would provide to the area and the ethical stance of these types of data-storing facilities.
Guest speaker David Carpenter of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany highlighted how "if you live near a source of elevated air pollution, you’re going to have exacerbations of respiratory disease”.
Prof Carpenter said living in proximity to the likes of a data centre is likely to make asthma attacks more frequent, make pulmonary diseases more severe, and increase Covid-19 hospitalisations.
"Power plants have to be placed somewhere, but they should be placed in areas as far removed from humans as possible,” he said.