Yesterday (Monday) Amazon officials held a 75-minute off-record technical briefing with subject matter experts on energy, water, wastewater, acoustics and economic development from the company’s development leadership and the engineers and technical specialists who design and operate their data centers.
The purpose of the briefing was to provide media representatives with” a solid technical foundation on how data centers work and how Amazon approaches each of the designated areas to build responsibility”.
The session allowed clarifying questions and note taking, but no recording.
The takeaways from this tightly structured session which obviously had an “Amazon” slant intended to benefit if not influence those in attendance will be reviewed in a subsequent Settle Talk.
But the BIG news from this secret meeting was NO news about the proposed Shreveport data center.
Speakers referred to Amazon’s $12 million investment in two data centers—one in Blanchard and one in north Bossier.
Absolutely NO mention of the proposed $6 million data center for southwest Shreveport.
Yes—nothing, nada, zero ANY mention of a Shreveport center.
Questions by this writer about the Shreveport center were repeatedly answered, “this meeting is NOT about Shreveport.”
The same answer was repeated many, many times, even when asked about the pending appeal by the Sierra Club to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals of the Shreveport City Council approval of the southwest Shreveport location for a data center.
Hmmm…was the silence because of the current litigation or has Amazon had a change of heart?
John came to Shreveport in January of 1977 when he was transferred to Barksdale AFB.
He’s been active in Shreveport politics since deciding to make Shreveport his home.
John practiced law for 40 years and he now monitors local politics. He regularly attends Shreveport City Council and Caddo Parish Commission meetings.
John is published weekly in The Inquisitor, bi-monthly in The Forum News, and frequently in the Shreveport Times.
He enjoys addressing civic groups on local government issues and elections.