Hermantown approves Google data center despite protests

But the Hermantown Data Center, this is something that caused a lot of, I guess, drama at the Hermantown City Council last week that led up to a lengthy public comment session on Friday night. And then the council did go ahead and approve some key permitting decisions here for the Google Data Center in Hermantown. Data, data, intermix those. Let's bring in Jimmy Lovren with the Duluth News Tribune covering this now. Yeah, just outside of Duluth, Jimmy, where does this, after this meeting on Friday night, this lengthy public comment session, then these votes, where does this stand now? Well, yeah, the bulk of the city's work is potentially done here. This was, like you said, some key approvals for the data center here in Hermantown, just outside Duluth. But there are, like, three ongoing court cases related to the data center that could... And, you know, Move things back and we might be back in City Hall, you know, again in the future if a certain environmental review needs to be redone or done in a different way, other elements of the project, you know, the court might reject or urge, you know. The city to change. So the shovels aren't going in the ground. Don't anticipate this being built. It'll take several years once construction starts. But it's still got a little bit ways to go. Design, final design still needs to be made. Some state permits need to be applied for and received. And so there are still more hurdles for it to cross. But the bulk of the city's work really wrapped up Friday. Yeah. Pending any litigation. And it sounds like, and Google had already basically made some other key changes ahead of this, scaling back the size, right, dropping their ask for tax subsidies, what a well monitoring program, a quieter campus. And then of course, this agreeing to pay for decommissioning, I mean, is that kind of the bulk of what these key provisions or changes that the council approved? That's right. Yep, yep. And those have kind of taken form over the last year, really the last few months, as they've, yeah, kind of sought to, they're saying, you know, take people's concerns into consideration and make changes based on those concerns. I don't think, you know, for what feels like most of the people in Hermantown, it was not, you know, these changes aren't enough. They are still very much opposed to the data center, but yeah, some changes, especially with property tax that they'll pay right off the bat rather than seeking tax abatement, some assurances that the city won't be on the hook, you know, if the data center stops becoming, stops being a data center, and like you said, the well monitoring program. So some changes, but again, the opposition didn't, you know, that didn't. It doesn't change anyone's mind, I don't think. And real, real quick, cuz we gotta get to this news conference with the NTSB. So give me just the real quick 20 second, 30 second version of this. Four hours of public comment Friday night, it sounds like it was largely opposed to this data center. That's right. Yep. They only let 85 people in after Monday's meeting about a week ago was shut down because of protests. So they let 85 people in. Everybody had the opportunity to speak or cede their time to one other person. And all but really, I mean, like a handful of people were opposed to it. So that took four hours. And then the city council ultimately unanimously voted. To prove and move this forward on on every item. All right. Well, there's still, as you mentioned, a long way to go on this before we see shovels in the ground. So we'll check back with you, too, as this continues.