Facebook Unfriends Ohio in Favor of Texas

CHICAGO (July 8, 2015) – Facebook announced today it has chosen Texas over Ohio for their next massive billion-dollar data center, which will be fully operated by wind power. The news comes as Ohio is deciding what the next steps should be regarding state policies perceived as unfriendly towards clean energy development. These policies have essentially halted commercial-scale wind development in the state and stifled the growth of energy efficiency and solar power.

Following is a comment from Samantha Williams, Staff Attorney and Energy Policy Advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“Facebook's commitment to renewable energy is clear. Unfortunately, one can only assume that Ohio’s flawed energy policy hindered its ability to secure Facebook’s billion-dollar investment and the jobs that would have come with it. This is a missed opportunity, but Ohio still has time to double down on clean energy and get the state back on track. Until Ohio becomes more open to renewables and energy efficiency, especially as other tech companies increasingly demand clean energy to power their cloud computing systems, no wind will likely continue to mean no cloud.”