HENDERSON, N.C.—On a recent summer evening Mitzi Parrott, who lives in Vance County, saw a television commercial on the evening news that gave her pause. Kathie Hamm and Bobbie Lequire, also of Vance County, saw it, too, streaming on Sling and posted on Nextdoor.
The ad extolled the purported economic benefits of data centers, including the claim that these enormous power-hungry facilities pay their own energy costs so “North Carolina families don’t have to.”
“I knew it wasn’t true, and it concerned me that other people wouldn’t know the other side,” said Parrott, whose land could back up to a proposed data center. “I figured somebody in the data center industry had to be behind it.”
Parrott was right.
Over the last two months, to counter the souring public sentiment, a group called North Carolina Connects has been running ads on TV, radio and social media promoting data centers.
