A $100 billion data center complex planned to be built near the Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia has effectively been canceled after residents spent five years fighting it in courtrooms, newspapers and town halls.
\n\nBloomberg reports that the “Digital Gateway” project, valued at roughly $100 billion, would have covered up to 37 buildings on more than 1,600 acres, an area about twice the size of New York’s Central Park. It called for 3.5 gigawatts of electricity, roughly what the entire city of Tampa, Florida, consumes. County officials had projected up to $400 million a year in tax revenue if it were completed.
\n\nInstead, a Virginia court blocked the project’s approval over administrative procedure defects, and the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. The case turned on a narrow detail: newspaper announcements about the land-use deliberation ran every three days instead of the required minimum six-day interval. The court found the repurposing process invalid on those procedural grounds alone. It did not rule on whether the data centers were necessary or what they’d do to the environment.
\n\nThe site sits near Manassas National Battlefield, the historic site of a major Civil War battle, and that proximity became a rallying…
Original source: https://www.breitbart.com/economy/
