1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Please oppose any blanket moratorium on data centers. Walla Walla needs economic growth. As of August, the county had just 27,200 payroll jobs, only 100 more than a year earlier, a 0.4% increase. Meanwhile, just down the road, Franklin County grew 2.6% and Benton County 1.6% last year, ranking among the fastest-growing counties in Washington. Pasco, Kennewick and Richland were all among the state’s top 10 cities for population growth. The proposed Attalia project is expected to create 120–150 permanent jobs plus hundreds of construction jobs. Amazon is already advertising Attalia technical positions paying roughly $33–$58 per hour, and says the project would pay 100% of its property taxes locally. Water, power, noise and environmental impacts absolutely should be scrutinized, but that is what permitting and SEPA review are for. The project has not even received final approval yet. If there is a legitimate problem, regulate it, set enforceable limits and make the developer pay the associated infrastructure costs. A blanket moratorium before that review is completed is not evidence-based policymaking. Walla Walla cannot complain about stagnant growth while simultaneously turning away billions of dollars of potential private investment and well-paying jobs. Please support responsible development, rigorous review and infrastructure investment, not a blanket ban driven by fear of an entire industry.