3 hours ago
Should data centers be restricted to areas where they can be powered by green energy? Chesterton and Valparaiso High School students debated that issue Monday night.
The discussion was the focus of the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group’s 17th annual environmental debate, as a growing number of communities, inlcuding Hobart, wrangle with what data centers will mean for their municipalities.
High school debaters are much more polite and reasonable, even compared to presidential candidates, the group’s president, Walt Breitinger, observed.
Valparaiso’s team, all three of them juniors, focused on limiting fossil fuels’ impact on the environment, while Chesterton’s team, all of them seniors, drilled home the impact on water scarcity when data centers are concentrated in areas where sufficient green energy sources are available.
Valparaiso’s Tania Bot noted that data centers have been targets in the war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran. The war has put a crimp on the Strait of Hormuz, driving up gas prices to the $4 mark in Northwest Indiana.
“Renewable energy cannot be cut off by foreign governments,” Bot said.
The Chesterton team (from left) Isabel Durkin, Ella Bolinger and Emery McKiddy consult during the annual high school environmental debate held by the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group on Monday, March 16, 2026, at the Porter County Administration Building. (Michael Gard/for the Post-Tribune)She noted how power-hungry data centers are. In states like Virginia, which has a high concentration of data centers, electricity prices have shot up 267% over the last five years, according to a February report from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.
Across the United States, energy prices are about 27% more than in 2019, the report said.
“AI data centers should be restricted in places where green energy is unavailable,” Bot said. Restricted doesn’t mean ban; just put them where green energy can support them.
“With great technological power comes great enviro responsibility,” she said.
Chesterton’s Isabel Durkin said concentrating data centers where green energy is already available offers a disincentive for investing in new renewable energy sources and threatens the water supply in those areas.
The Valparaiso team of (from left) Tonia Bot, Glori Lin and Jorge Ramirez consult during the annual high school environmental debate held by the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group on Monday, March 16, 2026, at the Porter County Administration Building. (Michael Gard/for the Post-Tribune)“Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay,” she said, and has significant economic impacts. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce report from 2017 said a large data center generates $243.5 million in local economic activities and $9.9 million in state and local taxes during the 18 months to two years it takes to build the data center. Once it’s operational, it continues to generate $1.1 million in state and local taxes.
In LaPorte, the agreement announced recently eschews a tax abatement request and provides for full property taxes to be collected, 15% of which will go to the local school district, Durkin noted. Cutting school budgets equals lower test scores and reduced college enrollment rates, so this is a boon to education, she said.
The impact on fresh water is the big concern from concentrating data centers in a single location.
“Data centers use copious amounts of water to cool their system,” Durkin said.
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute said the more than 300 data centers in northern Virginia collectively consumed close to 2 billion gallons of water in 2023, a 63% increase from 2019. Loudon County alone, with about 200 data centers, used around 900 million gallons of water in 2023.
Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people, the report said.
“You can build more solar panels, but you cannot manufacture more rivers,” Durkin said.
Chesterton senior Isabel Durkin, right, debates Valparaiso junior Jorge Ramirez during the annual high school environmental debate held by the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group on Monday, March 16, 2026, at the Porter County Administration Building. (Michael Gard/for the Post-Tribune)Valparaiso’s Jorge Ramirez agreed the demand for water is a problem, but the impact from using fossil fuels is severe.
“We should be using fossil fuels to actually produce those solar panels” and other supplies for generating green energy, he said.
“The environment is one of the biggest things we should protect in today’s society,” Ramirez said.
“AI data centers are a thorn in our side when we consider them to be part of our local energy usage,” he said
“Green energy is sustainable and good and we want it,” but focus on water issues, Chesterton’s Ella Bolinger said.
Chesterton High School senior Ella Bolinger speaks during the annual high school environmental debate held by the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group on Monday, March 16, 2026, at the Porter County Administration Building. (Michael Gard/for the Post-Tribune)With more than 400 data centers already operating in Texas and more on the way, the demand for water is equivalent to drawing down 16 feet per year from Lake Mead, she said.
Companies like Google and Microsoft are investing in green energy as part of their commitment to sustainability, Bolinger said.
Banning data centers from areas that already have enough green energy to meet data center’s needs would exclude 118 countries, mostly in the southern hemisphere, from technological sovereignty, according to a United Nations report Bolinger cited.
“AI data centers are going to exist. What is most important is how we disperse their negative impact to promote their positive impact,” Chesterton’s Emery McKiddy said.
“These economic benefits are measurable,” she said, citing U.S. Chamber of Commerce figures.
“Ultimately, technology doesn’t replace human value; it just reshapes it,” McKiddy said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
