DATA CENTERS ARE KEY TO U.S. GLOBAL LEADERSHIP—AND TO EVERYDAY LIFE IN OHIO.

• Data centers are the core infrastructure powering the next American industrial revolution. The advances they enable in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and information technology are reshaping how the world works, learns, communicates, and innovates.
• But data centers are not just about the technologies of the future. Ohioans rely on the digital infrastructure they provide every day—when families use online banking, stream entertainment, store photos and documents in the cloud, participate in a video call, access schoolwork online, receive medical care through telehealth, use GPS and navigation services, or communicate with businesses and government agencies.
• By storing, processing, and facilitating the exchange of vast amounts of information, data centers are also enabling technological advances that improve lives. For example:
o Improving healthcare, by helping medical professionals analyze imaging and other clinical information, detect diseases earlier, expand access to telehealth, and enabling researchers to develop new medicines and treatments more quickly.
o Supporting schools and learning, by powering the online educational tools, digital classrooms, research resources, and cloud-based services used by students, teachers, colleges, and universities throughout Ohio.
o Helping keep communities safe, by supporting the communications, mapping, data-storage, cybersecurity, and other digital systems relied upon by first responders, hospitals, utilities, and emergency-management agencies.
• In short, much of modern life already depends on data centers. As demand for cloud computing and other digital services continues to grow, building this infrastructure responsibly will be increasingly important to Ohio families and communities.

TODAY’S DATA CENTERS ARE BEING BUILT RESPONSIBLY IN OHIO.

Protecting Ratepayers. Data centers across the country are increasingly using a variety of approaches to cover the energy and infrastructure costs associated with their operations rather than shifting those costs to other utility customers. These approaches include long-term power purchase agreements, special rates and cost-recovery arrangements designed to make large-load customers pay the costs attributable to serving them, and on-site or “behind-the-meter” generation. In some cases, data centers are developing generation capacity that exceeds their own needs, allowing excess electricity to be added to the grid.i
• Ohio has already taken concrete steps to protect families from increased electricity costs associated with data center development. In July 2025, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved a special rate structure requiring large new data centers served by AEP Ohio to pay for at least 85% of their contracted electricity capacity, even if they use less, and to make long-term financial commitments backed by credit assurances and early termination fees. This will help to ensure that data centers bear the costs of infrastructure needed to serve them rather than shifting those costs to Ohio households and other utility customers.ii
• Leading data center developers in Ohio, including Aligned Data Centers, have also signed the federal Ratepayer Protection Pledge. The Pledge commits signatories to build, bring, or buy the new generation needed to meet their data centers’ energy demands, pay for required power-delivery infrastructure upgrades, and use separate rate structures designed to prevent those costs from being passed on to ordinary households.iii
• Conserving Water. Data centers typically use no more water than a comparable office building and by increasingly relying on air cooling, closed-loop systems, and recycled water, their overall water use continues to decline.iv In Virginia—the data center capital of the world—data centers account for less than 0.5 percent of all water withdrawals!v
• Ohio’s new data centers are being designed to dramatically reduce water consumption. For example, Aligned Data Centers’ proposed facility in Pataskala will use no water whatsoever for operational cooling, relying instead on air cooling and a closed-loop system that continuously recirculates water. Meanwhile, Aligned’s data center in Sandusky is projected to use just 1,269 gallons of water per day—a 99% reduction from the site’s previous industrial use.vi
• Soundproofing. New data centers are increasingly designed with noise controls from the outset—including sound-dampening building materials, acoustic barriers and enclosures, quieter cooling-system layouts, and mufflers for backup generators—to keep operational noise low and minimize impacts on nearby homes and communities.vii
• With modern noise mitigation, data centers can keep sound at the property line in the 50–60 dBA range—comparable to a household refrigerator or ambient park noise.viii
• Ohio’s new data centers are being designed with noise protections that minimize impacts on communities. For example, Aligned Data Centers’ planned facility in Pataskala will use cooling systems which operate at sound levels comparable to a normal conversation—and often quieter than a residential air conditioner. Other Ohio developments are incorporating low-noise equipment, acoustically enclosed generators, sound barriers, earthen berms, landscaping, and large setbacks to limit noise beyond their property boundaries.ix

WHAT’S IN IT FOR OHIO? MASSIVE BENEFITS.

• The data center industry supported 4.7 million American jobs nationwide in 2023, a 60 percent increase from 2.9 million jobs in since 2017, including direct, indirect, and induced effects. During this same period, direct employment in the data center industry grew by 50 percent, compared to 10 percent in U.S. employment overall.x
• Data centers and related AI infrastructure are projected to reach some $3 trillion in U.S. investment by 2030—the largest build-out in America’s peacetime history.xi
• Jurisdictions offering tax incentives to attract data centers are doubling their money on tax revenue alone—receiving over $2 in tax revenue for every $1 in incentives provided.xii
• In Virginia, data centers contribute an estimated 74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income, and $9.1 billion in GDP to Virginia’s economy each year.xiii
• Data centers generated $1.2 billion in real and personal property tax revenue for Loudoun County in FY 2026 alone, accounting for 39 percent of the County’s budget.xiv That revenue has enabled Loudoun County to lower its real-property tax rate generally every year over the past decade, and the County now has the lowest rate in Northern Virginia.xv
• Simultaneously, Loudoun County has lowered taxes for families while increasing funding for schools, providing additional support for first responders, investing in roads, bridges, parks, and libraries, and providing critical child-protection and mental-health services.xvi
• In Ohio, Amazon and Meta have invested billions of dollars in data centers, supporting thousands of jobs and generating substantial local tax revenue. Between 2015 and 2024, Amazon invested $6.2 billion in its data center infrastructure in Licking County, supporting an estimated 1,550 full-time-equivalent jobs annually and paying $3.1 million in local property taxes and fees in 2024 alone. Meanwhile, Meta has invested more than $1.5 billion in its New Albany data center, supporting more than 1,200 skilled trades workers at peak construction and more than 300 operational jobs.xvii
• To put these economic benefits into context, data centers in New Albany generated approximately $10 million in community development payments in 2024 alone, funding critical infrastructure and public amenities for local residents. In fact, New Albany credits data center investment with helping finance a new park, expansion of its police department, and other community improvements, while strengthening the City’s long-term financial position.xviii
• In Pataskala, Ohio, Aligned’s proposed a $5.2 billion development is projected to generate approximately $40 million in annual local tax revenue at full build-out, including $34.4 million in property taxes alone. The projected annual property taxes from this one facility would represent more than one-fifth of Licking County’s total annual budget!

We don’t need moratoriums or other draconian measures in Ohio. We need common-sense guardrails on electricity costs, water use, noise, and other concerns, because when we build data centers responsibly in Ohio, Ohio families win big.

i See David Rosner, Comm’r, Fed. Energy Regul. Comm’n, Remarks on the Large Load Show Cause Orders, E-7 to E-12 (June 18, 2026), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; U.S. Energy Info. Admin., Data Center Owners Turn to Nuclear as Potential Electricity Source (Oct. 1, 2024), U.S. Energy Information Administration; U.S. Dep’t of Energy, Video: $100B Paducah Investment to Create Energy Infrastructure, 8,600 Jobs (Aug. 25, 2026).
ii See PUCO Orders AEP Ohio to Create Data Center Specific Tariff, Pub. Utils. Comm’n of Ohio (July 9, 2025), https://puco.ohio.gov/news/puco-orders-aep-ohio-to-create-data-center-specific-tariff; Data Center Costs, Case No. 24-0508-EL-ATA, Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, https://occ.ohio.gov/content/data-center-costs-24-0508-el-ata; AEP Ohio Updates PUCO on Data Center Load: Figures Show Tariff Is Working, AEP Ohio (Feb. 13, 2026), https://www.aepohio.com/company/news/view?releaseID=10753.
iii See Ratepayer Protection Pledge, White House (Mar. 4, 2026), https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/03/ratepayer-protection-pledge/; Ratepayer Protection Pledge — Signatories, White House, https://www.whitehouse.gov/ratepayer-protection-pledge/; Scalable and Adaptive Data Centers in Northeast Ohio, Aligned Data Ctrs., https://aligneddc.com/northeast-ohio-data-centers/.
iv See Joint Legis. Audit & Rev. Comm’n, Commonwealth of Va., Data Centers in Virginia 62 (Dec. 9, 2024), https://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt598-2.pdf; Tim Walsh, Assistant Sec’y for Env’t Mgmt., U.S. Dep’t of Energy, The Truth About AI Data Centers (July 27, 2026); U.S. Dep’t of Energy, Fed. Energy Mgmt. Program, Technology Changes, but Energy Efficiency Principles Remain Steadfast in Data Center Design (Dec. 11, 2024), https://www.energy.gov/cmei/femp/articles/technology-changes-energy-efficiency-principles-remain-steadfast-data-center. v Joint Legis. Audit & Rev. Comm’n, Data Centers in Virginia, note 4, at 62.
vivi See ee Advancing Ohio’s Digital Future, Aligned Data Ctrs., https://aligneddc.com/pataskala-oh-data-center/
(last visited Oct. 15, 2026); Matt Westerhold, Aligned Data Centers Has Minimum Impact Plan for Water Usage, StayTunedSandusky (July 23, 2025), https://www.staytunedsandusky.com/p/aligned-data-centers-has-minimum; Scalable and Adaptive Data Centers in Northeast Ohio, Aligned Data Ctrs., https://aligneddc.com/northeast-ohio-data-centers/ (last visited Oct. 15, 2026).
vii See, e.g., Matthew Harbison, Good Noise Neighbor: Data Center Design for Community Noise, Building Design + Construction (Jan. 2026), https://www.bdcnetwork.com/building-sector-reports/data-centers/news/55341118/good-noise-neighbor-data-center-design-for-community-noise.
viii See, e.g., Cal. Energy Comm’n, Commission Final Decision 5.13-18 to -19 (2021); City of Chesapeake, Data Center Ordinance and Policy, https://cityofchesapeake.net/3783/Data-Center-Ordinance-and-Policy (last visited Sept. 27, 2026). ix See Advancing Ohio’s Digital Future, Aligned Data Ctrs., https://aligneddc.com/pataskala-oh-data-center/
(last visited Oct. 15, 2026); Perry Resident Q&A Response, Perry Tech. Park (May 2026), https://perrytechnologypark.com/perry-resident-qa-response/; Resident Questions, City of New Albany, Ohio, https://datacenters.newalbanyohio.org/resident-questions/ (last visited Oct. 15, 2026).
x PwC, Economic Contributions of Data Centers in the United States: 2017–2023, at 5 (Feb. 2025), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63a4849eab1c756a1d3e97b1/t/67b38f78e9cf125daf756112/1739820925392/Data+C enter+Economic+Contribution+Study+2025_Final.pdf
xi American Edge Project, America’s AI Surge: Powering Investment, Jobs and Growth in Every State, at 5 (Winter 2025), https://americanedgeproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Americas-AI-Surge-Powering-Growth-in-Every-State.pdf. xii SRC Evalmetrics, Economic Impact Study of Data Centers in Ohio, Ohio Chamber of Commerce Research Foundation, at 4, (2025), ohiochamberfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/Final-Ohio-Data-Center-Economic-Impact-Report-2025-1.pdf.
xiii Joint Legis. Audit & Rev. Comm’n, Data Centers in Virginia, note 4, at i.
xiv Loudoun County, Va., Data Centers: The Loudoun Story, https://www.loudoun.gov/6408/Data-Centers-The-Loudoun-Story (last visited Sept. 27, 2026).
xv Loudoun County, Va., Tax Revenues & County Budget, https://www.loudoun.gov/6409/Tax-Revenues-County-Budget (last visited Sept. 27, 2026).
xvi Id.
xvii City of New Albany, Ohio, City Celebrates Amazon Partnership, Commitment (Aug. 28, 2025), https://newalbanybusiness.org/news/2025/08/city-celebrates-amazon-partnership-commitment/; Meta, Here Is How the New Albany Data Center Is Supporting the Long-Term Vitality of Ohio, https://datacenters.atmeta.com/ohio-new-albany/.
xviii City of New Albany, Ohio, City Finances: The Financial Impact of Data Centers, https://datacenters.newalbanyohio.org/city-finances/ (last visited Oct. 15, 2026).