OHIO EYES OPEN

ohioeyesopen.com

Free tools for free thinkers in Ohio.

Ohio Eyes Open is a citizen media and toolkit project. Sourced facts about Ohio's data center boom — electricity bills, tax breaks, water quality, and public policy.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for key facts and issue areas — or look under the Home tab in the upper right for a dropdown of all Fact Sheets with Sources. 

ABOUT OHIO EYES OPEN

OHIO EYES OPEN

Free tools for free thinkers in Ohio.

This is not a political party. This is not a campaign. This is a toolkit.

Ohio is being asked to foot the bill — in higher electricity rates, tax giveaways, threatened water quality, and public pension funds — for an industry that creates few permanent jobs and primarily enriches the investors pushing it. We believe in facts, not fear. 

If they’re going to use AI to sell you something, you might as well use AI to sniff it out.

About This Site

Ohio Eyes Open was created by an Ohioan who believes in facts, transparency, and the power of regular people to think for themselves. Everything here is sourced. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for the complete case for a moratorium on more data centers. 

You don’t need a data center in your backyard to compete in the AI economy. The internet was built to be everywhere at once. Any entrepreneur, any startup, any student in Ohio can access the same world-class AI tools as anyone in Silicon Valley — right now, today. The cloud has no zip code. Ohio is already in it.

What Ohio does NOT need is to hand billions in tax breaks to the world’s richest companies, watch its electricity bills spike, risk its waterways, and gamble its pension funds on crypto — while being told it’s all for its own good.

What You’ll Find Here

•  Sourced facts and talking points on Ohio data centers, water, electricity, and jobs 

•  YouTube video short series and long format videos to share. 

•  Links to take action: public comment pages, representative contacts, voter registration

Free tools for free thinkers in Ohio.

TAKE ACTION

Take Action: Sign the Petition

A grassroots coalition of Ohioans is collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot that would ban the construction of large-scale data centers — facilities exceeding 25 megawatts — in Ohio. If enough signatures are collected and voters approve it, the amendment would give Ohioans direct democratic control over whether these facilities can be built in their communities — protecting farmland, water quality, electricity rates, and tax revenues from an industry that has collected billions in public subsidies while creating almost no permanent jobs.

This is citizens using the democratic process exactly as it was designed — to check the power of industries and politicians when the legislature won't.

Important: Signatures must be on physical paper with wet ink. Online signatures are not legally valid.

Organizers must collect approximately 413,000 valid signatures across at least 44 Ohio counties by July 1, 2026. Do not wait.

How To Sign

Print and circulate your own packet Download, print, and circulate a petition packet directly from the Conserve Ohio website. Every signature counts. https://conserveohio.com/

Find a signing event near you Visit conserveohio.com to find scheduled petition signing locations in your area.

Requirements You must be a registered Ohio voter to sign. Not registered to vote? Register at ohiosos.gov — then sign the petition.

Local Organizing

For community-led efforts opposing specific data center developments in Hamilton, Heath, Trenton, and surrounding areas visit the Coalition Against Data Centers in South Ohio Facebook Group for local drives and resources.

Not registered to vote? Register at ohiosos.gov — then sign the petition.

Contact Your Ohio Representatives

•  Find Your Ohio State Representative — ohiohouse.gov

•  Find Your Ohio State Senator — ohiosenate.gov

•  Contact Governor’s Office — governor.ohio.gov

Ohio EPA — Data Center Wastewater

•  Alliance for the Great Lakes — Take Action on Wastewater Permit

•  Ohio EPA Contact Page

Voter Registration & Civic Tools

•  Register to Vote in Ohio — Ohio Secretary of State

•  Ohio 2026 Election Information

Key Sources & Reading

•  Policy Matters Ohio — Data Center Tax Breaks

•  Ohio Capital Journal — Economists on Data Centers

•  The American Prospect — Ramaswamy’s Crypto Gamble

•  Circle of Blue — Lake Erie Water Risk

•  WOSU — Ohio Data Center Tax Break Balloons to $1.6B

•  Innovation Ohio — Electricity Bill Impact

Free Tools to Create Your Own Content

•  Claude AI — claude.ai (free)

•  ChatGPT — chatgpt.com (free)

•  ElevenLabs AI Voiceover — elevenlabs.io (free tier)

•  Canva Video & Design — canva.com (free tier)

•  Carrd — Free One-Page Website Builder

•  Google Sites — Free Website Builder

•  Beacons — Free Link-in-Bio Site Builder

KEY FACT SHEETS 

See Under Home Page dropdown menu for more fact sheets and videos 

Ohio Data Center Tax Breaks

How a Decade of Secret Deals Became a $1.6 Billion Annual Liability — And What Lawmakers Are Doing About It

Ohio Is Already Paying the Price

• Ohio's average residential electricity bill jumped 23.3% in a single year — the third-largest increase in the country — driven primarily by data center demand. Average families could pay $70 more per month by 2028.

• Data centers have collected $2.5 billion in Ohio tax breaks since 2017, yet the state's own tax break program cost 12 times more than projected in 2025 alone — ballooning to $1.6 billion. That's money not going to schools, childcare, or public services.

• Despite all this investment, only 11,791 Ohioans work in data centers statewide. Even the largest facilities employ fewer than 150 permanent workers. Policy Matters Ohio found some tax breaks amount to $1 million per job created.

• The Ohio EPA is proposing a new wastewater permit that would allow data centers to discharge into Lake Erie and Ohio's rivers under a "one-size-fits-all" process with minimal oversight — threatening decades of hard-won environmental cleanup. U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) stated: "Ohio should not compromise the integrity of our waterways to help data centers."

• 10 of 14 Ohio economists surveyed agreed tax incentives for data centers are not an efficient use of public funds. One called it "the worst use of public funds I can think of."

The Origin: A Deal Made in the Dark

• Ohio created its data center sales tax exemption in 2013 as part of the state budget signed by Gov. Kasich. The law allows data centers to avoid paying Ohio's 5.75% state sales tax — plus local county taxes of 1%–2% — on equipment and construction materials.

• In 2014, Amazon (operating as Vadata Inc.) became the first major beneficiary, signing a full 100% sales tax exemption estimated at the time to cost just $77 million. Gov. Kasich personally promoted the deal.

• The Amazon, Meta, and Google agreements each contained a non-disclosure clause prohibiting the state from releasing contract details publicly without written company consent. The public had no way to know the full scope of what had been agreed to.

• Amazon's deal runs through 2055. Meta's through 2056. Google's through 2058. All three were approved during the Kasich administration and required no re-approval as the companies expanded.

• These are not short-term incentives. Amazon's exemption runs through 2055. Meta's through 2056. Google's through 2058 — deals spanning 40+ years, locked in without public vote, public notice, or any requirement for re-approval as the companies expanded.

• Ohio state Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid), June 2026: "76% of the market is not affected, because of these deals those three signed in the Kasich administration."

The Explosion: From $77M to $1.6 Billion

• When the exemption was created, officials projected roughly $130 million annually. By 2025, the actual cost had reached $1.57 billion — approximately 12 times the forecast.

• Amazon's original deal was projected at $77 million over its life. With expansions, the state could end up forgoing 20 times that amount — without any additional public scrutiny or legislative approval required.

• Total approved sales tax exemptions since 2014: at least $2.3 billion — not counting property tax abatements and job creation credits stacked on top.

• There is no cap on how many agreements Ohio can sign or how much revenue it can forgo.

• Policy Matters Ohio: "This is a massive public subsidy going to some of the richest corporations on the planet. At a time when Ohio is struggling to fund schools, childcare, and many other public services, we cannot afford to continue."

Ohioans Are Paying Twice

Lost Tax Revenue:

• $2.5 billion in total incentives since 2017 that did not go to schools, childcare, or roads.

• Meta and Google tax breaks were estimated to cost more than $1 million per job created.

• 10 of 14 independent Ohio economists agreed the tax breaks are not an efficient use of public funds.

Rising Electricity Bills:

• Average Ohio electricity bills jumped 23.3% in 2025 — the third-largest increase in the country — driven by data center demand.

• The average Ohio family could pay $70 more per month by 2028. Data centers receive over $140 million per year in subsidies while pushing grid costs onto residents.

• AEP Ohio placed a moratorium on new Columbus-area data center connections in 2023 — the grid is already strained.

• If pending rate increases are approved, a Columbus customer could pay an extra $36/month by 2027 across electric, gas, and water combined.

The Jobs Promise That Didn't Deliver

• Despite $2.5 billion in subsidies and 200+ data centers, only 11,791 Ohioans work in the field statewide — fewer than a single large manufacturing plant.

• Most individual facilities employ fewer than 150 permanent workers. Some employ as few as 25. One Microsoft Licking County facility — a $1 billion investment — promised just 20 permanent jobs.

• The Cologix deal approved June 1, 2026: 90 jobs across two facilities. Tax break cost alone: $470,000 per job.

• Albert Sumell, Youngstown State University: "I can't think of a worse use of public funds than to incentivize data centers. They are associated with very few permanent jobs and high external costs."

• Microsoft's own data center siting executive told the New York Times: "I can't think of a site selection or placement decision that was decided on a set of tax incentives."

House Bill 646: What New Legislation Would Do

On June 9–10, 2026, Ohio lawmakers introduced sweeping new data center regulations through HB 646, emerging from the Senate Select Committee on Data Centers.

Tax Break Reforms:

• Cuts the 100% sales tax exemption to 50% for standard projects. Projects on brownfields or generating their own power qualify for up to 75%.

• Local property tax abatements capped at 50% for new deals.

• Eliminates access to Ohio's 30-year mega-project job creation grant for data centers.

• CRITICAL LIMITATION: These rules do NOT apply to Amazon, Meta, or Google. Their existing contracts cover an estimated 76% of Ohio's current data center market and remain fully intact through 2055–2058.

Transparency & Environmental Protections:

• NDAs explicitly stated to not supersede Ohio public records law.

• PUCO required to establish a dedicated data center utility rate class.

• Data centers required to track and report water withdrawals to Ohio EPA and ODNR.

• Closed-loop water cooling systems required, or equivalent best practices.

Legislative Status (June 10, 2026):

• Senate Energy Committee approved June 9. Full Senate vote, House approval, and Governor's signature still required.

• Gov. DeWine declined to comment, noting bills "change constantly." His signature is not guaranteed.

What HB 646 Does NOT Fix

• The Amazon, Meta, and Google contracts remain fully intact. Their Kasich-era deals lock in 100% exemptions through 2055, 2056, and 2058 respectively.

• House Speaker Huffman acknowledged the legacy contracts are problematic but said "future legislatures will likely need to address them" — no immediate fix.

• Ohio has no mechanism to retroactively renegotiate these deals without company consent or potential litigation.

• A November 2026 ballot initiative (Conserve Ohio) would constitutionally ban hyperscale data centers exceeding 25 megawatts statewide. Signature deadline: July 1, 2026. Visit conserveohio.com.

What to Watch

• HB 646 full Senate vote — expected this week (June 10–11, 2026)

• Ohio House vote on HB 646 — House and Senate must agree on final language

• Governor DeWine's signature — not yet guaranteed

• Ohio EPA general wastewater permit — public comment opportunities expected

• Conserve Ohio ballot petition — July 1, 2026 deadline at conserveohio.com

• AEP and FirstEnergy rate increase proceedings at PUCO — determines how much grid cost falls on residents

The Bottom Line

Ohio is being asked to foot the bill — through higher electricity rates, depleted tax revenues, threatened water quality, and secret multi-decade contracts signed without public scrutiny — for an industry that creates few permanent jobs and primarily enriches the investors hyping it. The deals were made in the dark. Ohioans deserve to ask: who benefits, and who is left holding the bag?

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open. 👁

Read sourced facts at ohioeyesopen.com and decide for yourself.

Key Sources

• Policy Matters Ohio — Data Center Tax Breaks

• Bloomberg Tax — Data Centers Won Billions in Tax Breaks

• Signal Ohio — Ohio Committed $2.3B in Sales Tax Breaks

• Ohio Capital Journal — Sweeping New Data Center Legislation

• WOSU — Ohio Legislators Introduce Data Center Bill in 48 Hours

• Alliance for the Great Lakes — Wastewater Permit Warning

• Innovation Ohio — $70/Month Electricity Increase

• Ballotpedia — Ohio Prohibition of Data Center Construction Amendment (2026)

• Conserve Ohio — Sign the Petition

What's Really Driving Data Center Demand in Ohio?

Sen. Jon Husted says Ohioans created this demand. The record tells a different story.

The Real Demand: A Trillion-Dollar Compute Race

• The people actually setting the pace of the AI buildout describe it in one word: compute. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar put it bluntly: “If you do not have it, you do not have revenue. That is one thing I know for sure.”

• OpenAI President Greg Brockman has said the company’s “single biggest blocker” on new product launches is finding enough compute — even after OpenAI committed roughly $1.4 trillion to data center capacity over the next eight years.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said compute will be the “currency of the future,” more valuable than fiat money or Bitcoin.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls compute power the “new natural resource” of the era and projects $3–$4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending by the end of the decade.

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who chairs the AI Infrastructure Partnership, says “the demand for compute is not slowing down. It’s growing faster.” He’s called data centers “the bedrock of the digital economy” — and said trillions of dollars of ordinary Americans’ savings and pension accounts will be what finances the buildout.

• Even Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has warned that AI’s “social license” to consume scarce energy could disappear if the technology doesn’t deliver real value soon — a rare note of caution from inside the industry itself.

• This is a race between a handful of trillion-dollar companies, private equity firms, and sovereign wealth funds to buy and build raw computing power — not a reflection of how much any Ohio family streams TV or texts a friend.

Wall Street, Crypto Miners, and Surveillance Firms Are Racing for the Same Compute

• “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, who is himself building a massive AI data center campus in Utah, has framed compute capacity as a matter of national security: “Which adversary would want us to stop building… compute capacity to develop AI? There’s only one: it’s China.”

• O’Leary has also argued that Bitcoin miners “hold the blueprint” for how America wins the AI race — explicitly tying crypto-mining infrastructure to the same power-hungry buildout now reshaping Ohio.

• BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds (including Abu Dhabi’s MGX and the Kuwait Investment Authority) teamed up to buy one of the world’s largest data center operators for $40 billion — demand here is coming from private equity and sovereign capital, not Ohio households.

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration names AI data centers and cryptocurrency mining together as the primary drivers pushing national electricity demand to record highs in 2026 and 2027 — the first time commercial electricity use is projected to overtake residential use.

• Mass surveillance networks add to the load too. Flock Safety’s automated license-plate-reader system, now covering tens of thousands of cameras nationwide, runs on cloud-based computer vision infrastructure — the same category of data-center capacity being sited in Ohio communities — and integrates with predictive-policing platforms like Palantir, expanding its footprint further.

The Enron Comparison: Is the “Demand” Even Real?

• Much of the AI boom cited to justify Ohio’s tax breaks runs on circular financing: Nvidia invests billions in OpenAI, OpenAI commits hundreds of billions to Oracle, Microsoft, and Amazon for data centers, and those companies spend much of it back on Nvidia chips — the same dollars counted as “revenue” at multiple links in the chain.

• Analysts estimate roughly $1.6–$1.8 trillion in AI-related obligations now sits off the major tech companies’ balance sheets, on top of over $1.4 trillion already on the books.

• Investor Michael Burry, famous for his 2008 mortgage-crash bet, disclosed he is shorting Nvidia, explicitly comparing its vendor-financing strategy to Enron’s accounting before the dot-com collapse.

• D.A. Davidson’s head of technology research put it bluntly: “Enron’s crime wasn’t having special purpose vehicles. Enron’s crime was hiding them.”

• OpenAI, the company at the center of the boom, is projected to lose roughly $14 billion in 2026 — nearly triple its 2025 losses — even as it commits hundreds of billions of dollars to future data center capacity.

What Senator Husted Actually Said

• In a recent radio interview, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted told listeners that Ohioans themselves are to blame for the demand behind the data center buildout now driving up their electric bills. His exact words: “When we look in the mirror, we are the problem.”

• Husted argued that anyone using streaming services or anything “connected to a wire” is personally responsible for the industry’s growth — comparing modern internet use to giving up a TV antenna.

• The Ohio Democratic Party called the remark “disgraceful,” noting Husted spent six years as lieutenant governor personally recruiting the data center industry to Ohio.

• Husted’s role was so central that the editor of Cleveland.com dubbed him “the face of data centers” in Ohio, and the Plain Dealer reported he “spent years rolling out the red carpet” for the industry.

The Senator Blaming You Has His Own Ties to the Industry

• In 2017, FirstEnergy secretly funneled $1 million through the dark-money group Freedom Frontier to boost Husted’s campaign for governor, according to internal company records released during the HB6 corruption investigation. Husted’s campaign denies receiving it.

• Husted’s official calendars show he met repeatedly with the three men at the center of Ohio’s $60 million HB6 bribery scandal — FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones, convicted former Speaker Larry Householder, and former PUCO chair Sam Randazzo — while the nuclear and coal bailout law was being drafted and passed. A lobbyist charged in the same scheme reportedly called Husted FirstEnergy’s “Golden Boy.”

• Husted’s 2026 Senate campaign has accepted about $69,750 from PACs and employees tied to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, American Electric Power, Duke Energy, and Vistra — the very companies building and powering Ohio’s data centers.

• Separately, two Jane Street Capital executives — a quantitative trading firm that has recently pushed into AI and data centers — gave a combined $637,200 to the pro-Husted super PAC Husted Victory 

• Federal financial disclosures show Husted and his wife hold stock in dozens of companies, including Intel — even as Husted played a lead role in bringing Intel’s Ohio semiconductor plant to the state. Husted opposes a ban on members of Congress trading stocks while in office.

• A May 2026 Senate ethics complaint alleges a senior Husted aide collected consulting fees from a Columbus lobbying firm while on Senate staff, and that Husted failed his supervisory duty to prevent the conflict.

Secret NDAs and Zoning Maneuvers, Right Here in Ohio

• In Wilmington, Ohio officials signed an NDA in January 2024 and withheld project details for more than 18 months while quietly negotiating with a data center company. In Brown County, an NDA kept officials from even confirming a project was a data center for months.

• Adams County’s own director of economic and community development has signed an NDA covering a proposed local project.

• Policy Matters Ohio has testified to state lawmakers that these agreements “undercut local democracy” by excluding residents from decisions before they’re final.

• Once land is rezoned from agricultural to industrial use, prices can explode: central Ohio farmland once priced around $30,000 per acre now exceeds $150,000 per acre after rezoning for data center use, according to industry data.

Ohio is being asked to accept the costs — higher bills, rezoned farmland, secret negotiations — because we're told the demand is simply too big to question. But that demand is being driven by trillion-dollar companies financing each other in circles, Wall Street and sovereign wealth funds racing to own compute, surveillance firms scaling nationwide camera networks, and a crypto-mining industry competing for the same power grid. Ohioans didn't create this boom by streaming a show or texting a friend.

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open. 👁

Read sourced facts at ohioeyesopen.com and decide for yourself.

Key Sources

•  Business Insider / AOL — OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar on the compute shortage (“If you do not have it, you do not have revenue”)

•  Business Insider / AOL — OpenAI President Greg Brockman on compute as the company's “single biggest blocker”

•  Benzinga / TradingView — Sam Altman on compute as the “currency of the future”

•  24/7 Wall St / AOL — Jensen Huang on compute as the “new natural resource” and AI infrastructure spending projections

•  The WinePress — Larry Fink (BlackRock) on compute demand “growing faster”

•  Snopes — Fact check: Larry Fink on financing data centers with Americans' savings and pensions

•  BigGo Finance — Satya Nadella on AI's “social license” to use scarce energy

•  Fortune — Kevin O'Leary on compute capacity, China, and his Utah data center

•  TipRanks — Kevin O'Leary: “Bitcoin Miners Hold the Blueprint for America's AI Supremacy”

•  Yahoo Finance / Reuters — BlackRock-Nvidia-Microsoft $40 billion Aligned Data Centers acquisition

•  Crypto Briefing — U.S. EIA 2026–27 electricity demand projections (AI + crypto mining)

•  ACLU — Flock Safety surveillance network expansion

•  Wikipedia — Flock Safety overview and scale

•  Noah Smith (Noahpinion) — Should we worry about AI's circular deals?

•  Global Finance Magazine — “The Circle Game”: Michael Burry's Enron comparison

•  MishTalk — $1.8 trillion in off-balance-sheet AI risk, “reminiscent of Enron”

•  Business Standard — Nvidia–OpenAI deal sparks circular financing concerns

•  TiffinOhio.net — Husted “Look in the Mirror” radio interview

•  Ohio Democratic Party — Statement on Husted's “Look in the Mirror” remarks

•  Canary Media — FirstEnergy's secret $1 million donation to Husted

•  TiffinOhio.net — New evidence on Husted's HB6-era meetings

•  TiffinOhio.net — Senate ethics complaint re: Husted aide's lobbying fees

•  TiffinOhio.net — Husted campaign donations from tech and utility company PACs

•  Ohio Democratic Party — Recap including Husted family stock disclosures

•  Policy Matters Ohio — Testimony on NDAs and public records law (HB 695)

•  Food & Water Watch — Inside the fight to stop a data center in Ohio

•  WOUB — Ohio rural zoning and data center NDAs

•  Quartz — Shell LLCs and NDAs in data center land deals

“The Center of Our Super-Intelligence”: What Ohio Needs to Know About the SoftBank Piketon Deal

PORTS Technology Campus — SoftBank Group — SB Energy — U.S. Department of Energy — Pike County, Ohio

Ohio is not your server farm. 🌽👁️

Who Is Behind It

• SoftBank Group — a Tokyo-headquartered investment conglomerate, not a data center operator. CEO Masayoshi Son says he was “born to realize ASI” — AI 10,000 times smarter than humans — and told the Piketon crowd: “This is the center of our super-intelligence.” A $1 trillion, 50-year bet, in his own words — on a foreign company with $27B and $32B back-to-back Vision Fund losses and a documented history of paying near-zero corporate tax in Japan.

• The partners: SB Energy (SoftBank's energy arm) builds the 9.2-gigawatt gas plant. AEP Ohio builds the transmission. OpenAI is the reported anchor tenant — SoftBank is also one of OpenAI's biggest shareholders. Financing reportedly runs through Mizuho, JPMorgan, and MGX — an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund vehicle.

• The land: 3,700 federal acres at the former Portsmouth uranium enrichment plant — built in the 1950s for the U.S. nuclear weapons program — leased, not sold, by the Department of Energy.

The Unanswered Tax Questions

• Ohio just learned Meta, Google, and Amazon each hold $600 million, 40-year sales tax exemptions on data center equipment — uncapped deals costing the state $1.6 billion in 2025 alone.

• Has SoftBank applied for the same 40-year exemption? Nobody has answered. SB Energy does not appear on the state's published list of 18 exemption holders — but no one has confirmed or denied a pending or future deal.

• At the groundbreaking, Pike County commissioners said the property tax (PILOT) agreement was still being negotiated — terms undisclosed. Ground was broken before the public knew what the county gave away.

• Pending state legislation would actually give more generous breaks to projects that build their own power plant on a brownfield — exactly what SoftBank is doing.

Trump Time: 90 Days From Deal to Shovels

• Commerce Secretary Lutnick bragged the deal happened in “Trump time” — announced one month before shovels hit the ground.

• No environmental impact assessment made public. No water-use plan disclosed. No public comment period announced — for the largest gas plant in the world next to the Ohio River.

• The pattern is statewide: Ohio's siting board approved a Meta-linked gas plant in Wood County in roughly 90 days with no public hearing. Residents found out after construction began.

The Health Reality on the Ground

• Two days before the announcement, DOE's own groundwater report confirmed TCE at 24,000 times the cleanup goal, uranium above drinking water standards, and radioactive technetium-99 in local creeks — on the same site now being leased.

• Pike County's premature death rate (under age 74) is 107% higher than the national average (2021–2023, epidemiologist Joseph Mangano). A local middle school closed after enriched uranium and neptunium-237 were detected.

• This community has been repeatedly excluded from federal Radiation Exposure Compensation — no recognition, no compensation — and is now being asked to host the next round of federal ambition on the same contaminated ground.

The Foreign Security Question They Won't Ask

• Data center advocates sell every project as “winning the AI race” against China — national security as the sales pitch. Look at who actually owns this one.

• The same federal site hosts Centrus Energy's uranium enrichment — a National Nuclear Security Administration mission whose stated purpose is ending dependence on foreign state-linked enrichment. Yet next door, DOE is leasing nuclear-legacy defense land to a foreign conglomerate — with no disclosed CFIUS national security review.

• SoftBank has a CFIUS history: Washington stripped its board control of Fortress and forced Huawei/ZTE equipment out of Sprint over espionage concerns before approving those deals.

• And the money behind “America's” AI security: $33.3 billion from Japan's government trade pledge, plus SoftBank capital tied to Saudi and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds. Japan is an ally — but if national security is the argument for these projects, it should be an argument applied to their owners too.

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open. 👁️🌽

Read sourced facts at ohioeyesopen.com and decide for yourself.

Key Sources

• Columbus Dispatch / AP — US, Japan Agree to Develop Power Plant, Data Center in Pike County

• Signal Ohio — Ohio Has Committed at Least $2.3 Billion in Tax Breaks for Data Centers

• Scioto Valley Guardian — Piketon Ground Zero for New Energy Megasite

• Scioto Valley Guardian — Feds Release Contamination Report as Cabinet Secretaries Head to Piketon

• Scioto Valley Guardian — Ohio Waved Through a Massive Gas Plant in 90 Days

• WOUB — Officials Break Ground for Nation's Largest Data Center in Pike County

• Inside Climate News — A Massive, Trump-Backed Power Plant May Be Too Big to Succeed

• Centrus Energy — Commercial Enrichment & National Security Missions at Piketon

• CNBC — SoftBank Picking Its Battles with US National Security Committee (CFIUS)

• Lawfare — The SoftBank–Sprint Deal, Huawei/ZTE, and CFIUS

• Fortune — Son Says He Was Put on Earth to Create Artificial Superintelligence

• Nikkei Asia — The Mystery of SoftBank's Zero Tax Bill

Ohio’s Data Center Gamble

Who Pays the Price — and Who Profits?

Ohio Is Already Paying the Price

• Ohio’s average residential electricity bill jumped 23.3% in a single year — the third-largest increase in the country — driven primarily by data center demand. Average families could pay $70 more per month by 2028.

• Data centers have collected $2.5 billion in Ohio tax breaks since 2017, yet the state’s own tax break program cost 12 times more than projected in 2025 alone — ballooning to $1.6 billion. That’s money not going to schools, childcare, or public services.

• Despite all this investment, only 11,791 Ohioans work in data centers statewide. Even the largest facilities employ fewer than 150 permanent workers. Policy Matters Ohio found some tax breaks amount to $1 million per job created.

• The Ohio EPA is proposing a new wastewater permit that would allow data centers to discharge into Lake Erie and Ohio’s rivers under a “one-size-fits-all” process with minimal oversight — threatening decades of hard-won environmental cleanup. U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) stated: “Ohio should not compromise the integrity of our waterways to help data centers.”

• 10 of 14 Ohio economists surveyed agreed tax incentives for data centers are not an efficient use of public funds. One called it “the worst use of public funds I can think of.”

Ramaswamy’s Playbook: This Isn’t His First Time

Before promising to make Ohio “the top state for business,” Vivek Ramaswamy ran a strikingly similar play in biotech:

• In 2015, Ramaswamy bought a drug that had already failed four clinical trials for $5 million, hyped it publicly in media appearances, took it to a record-breaking $315 million biotech IPO, and cashed out nearly $40 million of personal stock while the hype was peaking. When the drug failed its Phase 3 trial in 2017, the stock lost 75% of its value overnight, wiping out thousands of retail investors.

• His spokesperson first denied he made any money, before admitting the cash-out. Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld wrote that the behavior “almost resembled a classic pump-and-dump scheme.”

• His company Strive later made similar moves: Ramaswamy sold nearly $200 million in Roivant stock right before its valuation shrank fivefold after its SPAC listing.

Now He’s Running the Same Play on Ohio Voters

• Ramaswamy’s own financial disclosure confirms he personally holds Bitcoin and Ethereum and owns ~10% of Strive, Inc. — a company he co-founded that has bet nearly $1 billion in corporate funds on Bitcoin at an average price of $105,850/coin. With Bitcoin trading well below that, Strive has reported over $500 million in unrealized losses.

• As governor, Ramaswamy would control appointment of Ohio pension fund trustees overseeing $250 billion in public assets — and he’s already publicly praised legislation to invest up to 10% of Ohio’s state funds in Bitcoin. Every dollar Bitcoin rises helps him recover his losses.

• His two largest super PAC donors are crypto billionaires: Ross Stevens ($14M) and Jeff Yass ($10M), who hold billions in Bitcoin and Coinbase. They are funding his campaign because they stand to profit directly from his policy agenda.

• He publicly champions data center expansion for Ohio while never disclosing that his own company profits from Bitcoin mining — which data centers power — and blames rising electricity costs on insufficient fossil fuel production rather than the data centers themselves.

• A former pension fund trustee and financial analyst warned: “I fear Ramaswamy, who through Strive is connected to the entire network of high-risk investments including both crypto and private equity, could take the corruption to the next level.”

The Bottom Line

Ohio is being asked to foot the bill — through higher electricity rates, depleted tax revenues, threatened water quality, and potentially public pension funds — for an industry that creates few permanent jobs and primarily enriches the very investors hyping it. Ramaswamy ran this play before in biotech. Ohioans deserve to ask: who benefits, and who is left holding the bag? 

You are not the beneficiary.

You are the resource.

Mined by the playbook.

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open.

Key Sources

•  Policy Matters Ohio — Data Center Tax Breaks

•  Ohio Capital Journal — Economists on Data Center Incentives

•  Alliance for the Great Lakes — Wastewater Permit Warning

•  Fortune / Yale Insights — Sonnenfeld on Ramaswamy

•  The American Prospect — Ramaswamy’s Crypto Gamble

•  TiffinOhio.net — Ramaswamy Financial Disclosure

•  Innovation Ohio — Electricity Bill Impact

•  Circle of Blue — Lake Erie Water Risk

The Van Wert Data Center: The Facts

QTS Data Center Campus — Van Wert, Ohio — Announced May 29, 2026

What Was Announced

•  Company: QTS Data Centers — headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. A portfolio company of Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, headquartered in New York City.

•  $10 billion in capital investment at the Van Wert Mega Site — a 902-acre property bordered by U.S. Route 30, U.S. Route 224, Mendon Road, and the Hoagland Township line.

•  Up to seven data center buildings on 902 acres of Van Wert County farmland — land that had been used for corn, soybeans, popcorn, and wheat production. Van Wert County has 220,000 acres in agricultural production.

•  Groundbreaking: Q4 2026. Fully operational: 2032. The campus does not yet exist. Not a single server has been installed.

•  The deal was quietly negotiated for more than two years before the public announcement.

The Jobs Promise

•  1,500+ construction jobs during the 5-6 year building phase. These are temporary.

•  200 full-time permanent positions once operational. These are primarily maintenance and operations roles — monitoring servers, maintaining cooling systems, and managing facilities.

•  A University of Pennsylvania professor confirmed to NPR that “most data centers employ about 100 to 200 people.” This is consistent with QTS’s own projection.

•  Ohio’s food and agriculture industry supports 837,000 jobs and contributes $100 billion to Ohio’s economy annually. One out of every seven Ohio workers works in food and agriculture.

The Math

•  QTS projects $200 million in tax revenue for Ohio — over 20 years. That is $10 million per year.

•  Ohio gave data centers $1.5 billion in tax breaks in 2025 alone — 12 times more than the state projected. That is $10 million every 2.4 days.

•  Ohio would need 150 campuses this size just to break even on last year’s tax breaks in tax revenue over 20 years.

•  Cost per job over 20 years: between $10 million and $50 million per person who ever works there, depending on turnover assumptions.

•  The company is headquartered in Kansas. Owned by a New York private equity firm. Profits leave Ohio.

The Timing

•  On Wednesday, May 27, 2026, Governor DeWine paused new data center tax exemption requests while the Ohio General Assembly’s Joint Data Center Committee studied the issue. DeWine stressed he fully supports data centers.

•  On Friday, May 29, 2026 — two days later — the Van Wert QTS campus was publicly announced.

•  The deal had been in negotiation for over two years. The pause did not stop it.

The Broader Context

•  Ohio has given data centers $2.5 billion in tax breaks since 2017. The tax break cost $1.6 billion in 2025 alone — 12 times the projected amount.

•  Ohio’s average residential electricity bill jumped 23.3% in one year — the third-largest increase in the country — driven primarily by data center demand. The average Ohio family could pay $70 more per month by 2028.

•  Only 11,791 Ohioans work in data centers statewide — across all 200+ facilities.

•  A Gallup survey from March 2026 found 71% of Americans oppose data centers near their homes — higher opposition than the Iraq War, ICE operations, or the Affordable Care Act.

•  Ohioans are collecting signatures for a November 2026 ballot initiative to ban hyperscale data centers statewide. Deadline: July 1, 2026. Visit conserveohio.com to sign.

Their cloud is our cornfields.

Ohio is not your server farm.

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open. 👁️

Key Sources

•  Lima Ohio — Van Wert Data Center Details

•  WTOL — QTS Van Wert Campus Announcement

•  WOSU — DeWine Freezes Data Center Tax Break

•  Policy Matters Ohio — Data Center Tax Breaks

•  Van Wert County OSU Extension — Agriculture Facts

•  Gigafact — Data Center Jobs Research

•  Tom’s Hardware — 71% of Americans Oppose Data Centers•  Conserve Ohio — Sign the Petition

Make Ohio Healthy Again

What Data Centers Mean for Ohio’s Water, Air, and Health

The Cleanup That Just Finished

•  Ohio has 37 EPA Superfund sites. The cleanup of the Ashtabula River — contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, uranium, radium, and thorium from decades of industrial operations — only finished in 2021. That cleanup began in the 1990s. Some sites in Northeast Ohio are still ongoing today.

•  Between 2006 and 2013, crews removed 620,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment — containing 14,000 pounds of PCBs and low-level radioactive materials — from the Ashtabula River before it could flow into Lake Erie.

•  At Fields Brook — a Superfund site since 1983 — recovery wells are still extracting toxic liquid from the ground. About 30,000 gallons removed so far.

•  Now the Ohio EPA is proposing a permit that would allow data centers to discharge untreated wastewater into Ohio rivers and Lake Erie — with no baseline water quality testing required and no PFAS limits.

PFAS — Forever Chemicals and Your Hormones

•  Data centers use PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — in their cooling systems. These chemicals do not break down. They accumulate in water, soil, and the human body.

•  PFAS are endocrine disruptors. Research from Michigan State University published in 2024 showed that mid- to long-chain PFAS directly stop the production of thyroxine — the thyroid hormone that regulates metabolism, heart rate, body temperature, and development.

•  A December 2025 study published in JAMA Network Open found associations between specific PFAS compounds and endocrine disruption in U.S. women — with PFAS interfering with hormone-binding proteins in thyroid hormone transport.

•  PFAS can cross the placental barrier — raising concerns about effects on developing fetuses and future generations.

•  The proposed Ohio EPA permit does not mention PFAS once.

Air Pollution — The Diesel Generator Problem

•  Data centers rely on diesel backup generators that are regularly tested — meaning the emissions are not emergencies. They are routine. A single data center can pose health risks for residents living at least 0.6 miles away.

•  Diesel generators emit nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) linked to respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and premature death. Emergency diesel generators emit 200 to 600 times more nitrogen oxides than natural gas plants.

•  A Piedmont Environmental Council study found one Virginia data center's generators could cause up to 200 premature deaths over 30 years. Ohio has no requirement for health impact studies before data centers are built.

Noise Pollution — The Hum You Can’t Escape

•  Data centers run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Cooling systems and gas turbines emit constant low-frequency noise — including infrasound below the human hearing threshold that cannot be blocked by earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones.

•  Residents near data centers have reported headaches, vertigo, nausea, sleep disruption, ear pain, and hypertension. The WHO links chronic noise exposure to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and anxiety.

•  Because low-frequency noise is difficult to measure with standard decibel meters, it is nearly impossible to enforce local noise ordinances — even when residents are clearly being harmed.

Ohio spent decades cleaning up the last industrial boom’s mess.

We are not obligated to create the next one.

Make Ohio Healthy Again. 🌽👁️

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open. 👁️

Read sourced facts at www.ohioeyesopen.com and decide for yourself.

Key Sources

•  International Joint Commission — Ashtabula River Delisted 2021

•  EPA Fields Brook Superfund — Ongoing Cleanup

•  Circle of Blue — Ohio EPA Wastewater Permit & PFAS

•  Michigan State University — PFAS Disrupts Thyroid Hormone Synthesis (2024)

•  JAMA Network Open — PFAS & Endocrine Disruption in Women (2025)

•  The Hill / WCMH Columbus — Data Center Air Pollution & Lung Issues

•  EESI — Data Center Noise Pollution & Health Effects

•  Save Ohio Parks — Tell Ohio EPA No General Wastewater Permits

•  Conserve Ohio — Sign the Petition

Make Ohio Healthy Again

Endocrine Disruptors, Metabolic Health & Reproductive Risk

Three documented facts. You connect them.

1. What Endocrine Disruptors Do to the Human Body

The following is documented in peer-reviewed research. These are not Ohio-specific claims — they are what the science shows about these chemicals generally.

•  Metabolism: PFAS exposure is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and liver toxicity — particularly when exposure occurs in early childhood. They can alter basal metabolic rate, gut microbiota composition, and hormonal regulation of appetite and satiety.

•  Cholesterol and cardiovascular risk: PFOA and PFOS exposure is associated with higher total and LDL cholesterol levels, higher triglycerides, and increased blood pressure.

•  Reproductive system — female: PFAS exposure correlates with conditions including endometriosis. Endocrine disruptors including PCBs and dioxins are associated with disrupted puberty timing — including premature breast development in girls.

•  Reproductive system — male: PFAS classes affect sperm parameters. Endocrine disruptors are associated with abnormal breast development in boys and fertility impacts through epigenetic changes in reproductive organs.

•  Pregnancy and development: PFAS exposure can affect fetal development through hormonal disruption during pregnancy. Endocrine disruptors are associated with preterm birth and decreased gestational age.

•  Children are especially vulnerable: Research specifically on children and adolescents shows PFAS exposure affects glucolipid metabolism with damage that may affect adult lives. Early life PFAS exposure is associated with increased risk of overweight and obesity in childhood.

•  Immune function: Human exposure to PFAS, even at trace levels, is associated with immune suppression and developmental neurotoxicity.

2. Ohio’s Documented Industrial Contamination Legacy

These are documented facts about Ohio’s environmental history. They are separate from the health research above.

•  Ohio has 37 EPA Superfund sites on the National Priorities List — reflecting decades of industrial pollution from metal processing, chemical production, and improper waste handling.

•  Documented contaminants across Ohio Superfund sites include: PCBs, dioxins, heavy metals, chlorinated solvents, uranium, radium, thorium, benzene, lead, mercury, and volatile organic compounds. PCBs and dioxins are themselves classified endocrine disrupting chemicals by the EPA and Endocrine Society.

•  The Ashtabula River cleanup — contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, uranium, radium, and thorium — began in the 1990s and was only formally completed in 2021. Some NE Ohio Superfund sites have ongoing cleanup today.

•  Fields Brook, which flows into the Ashtabula River and then into Lake Erie, was designated a Superfund site in 1983. Recovery wells are still extracting toxic liquid from the ground.

•  Ohio has more data centers than any other Great Lakes state — 217 facilities by one count with 80 more planned. The proposed Ohio EPA general wastewater permit would allow data centers to discharge into Ohio rivers and Lake Erie with no PFAS limits and no baseline water quality testing required.

3. What Is Being Proposed Right Now

•  The Ohio EPA’s proposed general wastewater permit for data centers contains no mention of PFAS — despite PFAS being used in data center cooling systems.

•  The permit requires no baseline water quality testing before discharges begin — meaning there will be no scientific record of what the water quality was before data centers started discharging into it.

•  The permit’s own language states: “It has been determined that a lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit is necessary to accommodate important social and economic development.”

•  Ohio has no state law requiring health impact assessments before data centers are built. No air quality baseline testing. No noise impact studies. No reproductive health risk assessment.

•  The Endocrine Society classifies PCBs, PFAS, and dioxins — all documented in Ohio Superfund sites — as endocrine disrupting chemicals. The same class of chemicals data centers use in cooling systems and could discharge into Ohio waterways under the proposed permit.

Three bodies of fact. You decide.

Make Ohio Healthy Again. 🌽👁️

Ohio First. Ohio Eyes Open. 👁️

Read sourced facts at ohioeyesopen.com and decide for yourself.

Key Sources

•  ScienceDirect — PFAS as Persistent Pollutants with Metabolic & Endocrine Impacts (2024)

•  PMC — Endocrine Disruptors, Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome (2025)

•  NIEHS — Endocrine Disruptors: Reproduction, Puberty & Development

•  Diabetes & Environment — PFAS, Cholesterol, Diabetes Research

•  Frontiers in Endocrinology — PFAS & Children’s Metabolic Health (2024)

•  EPA Fields Brook Superfund — Ongoing NE Ohio Cleanup

•  International Joint Commission — Ashtabula River Delisted 2021

•  Circle of Blue — Ohio EPA Data Center Wastewater Permit & PFAS

•  Save Ohio Parks — No General Wastewater Permits