New Details Inflame Data Center Worries
Fundamental Data representatives shock residents with enormous development plans, including 3 power plants
By Mat Cloak, contributing writer
Representatives from Fundamental Data made their first public appearance in Tucker County on Saturday, more than a year after news of a proposed power plant and data center complex alarmed many in the community. The presentation offered new details about the enormous project, leaving many residents more concerned than ever.
Scott Wyland and Lewis Reynolds of Fundamental Data told the crowd that the natural gas-fueled power plant planned for a site less than two miles from Davis and Thomas is just the first phase of a much larger, three-phase development plan. Subsequent phases may include an additional natural gas power plant and a nuclear power plant. The three phases will potentially encompass 10,000 acres.
At Saturday’s meeting in the Davis fire hall, Fundamental Data representatives also revealed:
The 10,000-acre project will be spread across multiple non-contiguous parcels of land in Tucker and Grant Counties, including 1,500 acres for data centers and 300 acres for power generation. They did not provide a specific acreage for their solar project, nor other specific plans for the remaining 8,200 acres.
As previously reported, the company plans to build three diesel fuel storage tanks that will hold up to 10 million gallons each as a backup fuel source for the power plant near Davis and Thomas. However, company representatives noted for the first time that only two of the tanks will be used to store diesel fuel. The third tank is for “environmental protection in case there was a leak.”
Opponents have criticized Fundamental Data for the extensive redactions in its air quality permit application to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Permit applications for comparable projects in the state were not as heavily redacted. Reynolds said the redactions are not hiding any emissions information. “It has to do with how many turbines we have, how we’re running them,” Reynolds said. “We don’t want to show our competition all the details about how we’re keeping the power on 24/7.”
“We implore you to move on”
About 40 people attended the event at the Davis fire hall. Many asked detailed questions about the company’s plans, emissions, and water usage.
Wyland and Reynolds unsuccessfully attempted to calm public health and environmental concerns about the facilities. There were numerous outbursts of frustration and anger from the crowd.
Claire Anderson, who lives near Davis, expressed her frustration with Fundamental Data’s desire to move forward with the project despite local opposition. “We are not billionaires, but our lives are infinitely valuable. There’s no price to our lives and to our health,” Anderson said. “We all came here or are from here to get away from the ill effects of extractive corporations and health erosion from pollutants. We implore you to move on.”
The Fundamental Data representatives indicated they have no plans to move the power plant further from Thomas and Davis. “It turns out the gas plant site is one of the few places in this area that is not undermined. We need stable ground for this type of facility,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds also noted that if Fundamental Data moved the site of the power plant further east into the region of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, it would face stricter environmental regulations, specifically regarding diesel fuel storage.
Reynolds and Wyland declined to answer any questions about Fundamental Data itself, or tech companies interested in the planned data center complex. Thomas resident Matt Hauger was one of many who expressed frustration with the company’s lack of transparency.
“You fault us for not having the facts,” Hauger said. “Do you think one of the reasons for that is you have been so opaque with this community? That you haven’t shown up here to talk to us about it until a year after we learned about it?”
Reynolds replied, “I will confess that we probably should’ve come sooner and talked to this community.”
Health impact
Wyland and Reynolds cast doubt on the credibility of a health report commissioned by Tucker United, a community group formed to oppose the power plant and data center complex. The report estimated the power plant would produce $35 million in increased annual health-related costs.
“That report would never be admissible in court. It just doesn’t meet the scientific standards of a proper analysis,” Wyland said.
“I think these reports are silly,” Reynolds said later. “There are power plants all over the country that are less efficient — they’re making more environmental emissions than what we are planning on doing. We’re just a drop in the bucket.”
No zoning
Local opposition to the power plant is tied to opposition against HB 2014, the state law that overrides local control of state-certified data center projects and redirects most of the local property tax revenue from such projects to the state. However, Reynolds noted that HB 2014 is irrelevant to the proposed data center complex near Davis and Thomas, because Tucker County doesn’t have a zoning ordinance that could be used to reject the project or force changes to it.
“If HB 2014 had not been passed, we would still be building the plant under the exact same plan that we have,” Reynolds said. “In fact, we applied for the permit before HB 2014 was passed.”
Fundamental Data’s air quality permit application was filed on the same day HB 2014 was introduced in the West Virginia House of Delegates: March 18, 2025.
The representatives answered numerous questions about water usage. They stated the power plant’s “closed loop system” will recycle water and use less water than other cooling systems. “We don’t expect to affect the aquifers in this area whatsoever,” Reynolds said. However, they did not specify the original source of the water that would be used to cool the facilities.
Job creation and tax revenue were not a significant part of the discussion Saturday. The Fundamental Data representatives estimated the power plant project could create about 5,000 jobs during construction, and once completed, will generate an estimated $27 million in annual tax revenue.
Saturday’s event was publicized as a forum for discussing the proposed data center complex. However, the pre-event notifications did not mention that representatives of Fundamental Data would attend and answer questions. Community turnout likely would have been much larger if residents had known in advance that representatives of Fundamental Data would be there.
This is a tragedy. What it truly unveils is that the citizens have zero say in their own lives. They supposedly elect the politicians, but where are they? What is do be done? Civil disobedience?
All data centers should be located in places that have already been destroyed by urbanization (parking lots, industrial parks, abandoned malls, etc). They have no place in natural environments. None.
Your Fearless Canaan Weatherman plans to post meteorologically-related AI comments on this project on his Substack Platform in the coming weeks.
AI's response to several questions I posed are both perplexing and disturbing.