As Smithfield moves to ban data centers, Smith Hill is still debating how to define them

There’s no concrete proposal yet for a data center in Smithfield.

But there is a ghost town.

A 2010 inventory of Smithfield’s historic sites described a settlement known as Hanton City, located near Fidelity Investments’ corporate campus, like this: “Was a late 17th C. farming village, now just ruins. Some is protected and some is private. Large undeveloped tract of land.”

That constraint reemerged during a testimony near the end of the night. Emily Koo, Rhode Island program director for the Acadia Center, spoke in support of Speakman’s bill, arguing a 20-megawatt threshold would more comfortably fit the tiniest state than Kennedy’s 50-megawatt benchmark.

Rep. Tina Spears, a Charlestown Democrat, asked Koo why the Acadia Center, a clean energy and climate policy nonprofit, didn’t take a more hardline stance.

“We just heard Rhode Island Energy talk about supply issues,” Spears said. “So I’m a little surprised that Acadia just isn’t coming out in opposition to the bill, to the expansion of data centers.”

Koo replied that the Acadia Center was only asked to examine best practices for guardrails but will share a more formal position.

To read the full article from Rhode Island Current, click here.