‘We all benefit from their selfishness’: Curley defends billionaire-driven data centers, warns Cle Elum is making a mistake

Cle Elum passed an emergency six-month pause on data centers three days after a developer revealed plans for a 20-megawatt data center in the city, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday.

KIRO host John Curley warned Cle Elum is making a mistake by blocking the data center, arguing the revenue it could generate is exactly what the city needs as it navigates bankruptcy proceedings stemming from a $22 million arbitration ruling in favor of developer Sean Northrop.

“Here’s the deal: take a place like Loudoun County, Virginia,” he said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “They come in, they put a data center in there, and the thing is generating —because they’re taxing the hell out of it — Loudoun County taxes the data centers at $609 a square foot. Loudoun County is making $1 billion a year. They’ve been able to reduce the taxes paid by the people there by, I think, 45% or something like that. So the thing is a gold mine for them.

“They’ve been able to use the money to build new schools. They got a bunch of other stuff as well,” he continued. “When it comes to Cle Elum and other cities that are trying to block this, like Federal Way. We had the mayor on the other day, and I said, ‘Hey, you gonna do a data center? I saw you guys all voted for a moratorium to study it.’ Because they were going to put it where Wild Waves is. The thing is, data centers, good, bad — everybody can get upset about it, but you can go back to something like fracking.”

Curley compares data center debate to fracking

Curley compared the data center debate to the fracking boom, pointing to how New York banned fracking while neighboring Pennsylvania embraced it, arguing that Pennsylvania communities reaped the economic benefits while parts of New York were “dying on the vine.”

“We need more energy,” he said. “The data centers were demanded, so then innovations will occur on the energy side, which will then benefit the data center side, which then benefits all of us. That’s the best way it’s all going to come together.”

He noted Quincy, Washington, already hosts data centers, and while some residents welcome them, others oppose the growing infrastructure demands they bring.

“You’re never going to make everybody happy about it, but the thing is, some cities and some towns will have it, others won’t,” he said. “Who will benefit when everything is settled? I believe those that move forward and don’t try to block will do better.”

Curley responds to Sanders’ criticism of billionaire-driven AI push

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders spoke out against the drive for AI and data centers by billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. Curley pushed back, arguing that their self-interest ultimately benefits everyone.

“The whole idea of people like Zuckerberg and these others, yeah, they’re completely and absolutely driven, and they’re absolutely selfish,” he said. “And we all benefit from their selfishness.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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