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Apple Scraps $1 Billion Irish Data Center Over Planning Delays (reuters.com)
Apple ditched plans to build an 850 million euro ($1 billion) data center in Ireland because of delays in the approval process that have stalled the project for more than three years, the iPhone maker said on Thursday. From a report: Apple announced plans in February 2015 to build the facility in the rural western town of Athenry to take advantage of green energy sources nearby, but a series of planning appeals, chiefly from two individuals, delayed its approval. Ireland's High Court ruled in October that the data center could proceed, dismissing the appellants who then took their case to the country's Supreme Court.
... this happening in the US. I don't know the specifics of the story but I'm sure those 2 individuals would have been steam rolled by now
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/apple/apple-agrees-pay-15-4-billion-back-taxes-ireland-even-n826701
TFA article tells you crap about the complaints. Here's a much better article:
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/design-build/apples-irish-data-center-faces-new-hearing/96069.fullarticle
"...objectors raise fears that it would flood golf course, and make inordinate demands on Ireland’s power grid."
"The full proposal would reduce the habitat of bats and badgers, say some objections, and the Bord has also received a complaint from Athenry Golf Club, 1km away from the site. 'Our primary concern is the totality of the proposed development, especially the extent of the proposed masterplan, and the potential this has to alter the hydrology of the local area and potentially increase the frequency and duration of flooding already experienced at the golf club,' says the golf club’s appeal"
Yeah, I feel sorry for that small, rural town, missing out on about $1B for their economy, just because of two assholes.
Why do you assume that money would go predominately to the local economy? Obviously they would capture some of it but it's unclear how much. Plus having a large company come in and dominate the local economy is the very definition of a two edged sword. It can bring a lot of positive economic benefits but it also makes the local economy beholden to that one company and can absolutely ruin the local economy if/when they leave.
I'd say that the recognition that the EU sees Apple as a cow from which many Euros can be milked might have more to do with this.
There are LOTS of places they could build this.
-Styopa
American style socialism favors the freedoms and rights of fictional corporate entities. European socialism favors the rights of individuals or the public good. In the U.S. foreign companies are leveraging Kelo V New London to stomp over individual rights, including declaring nearly new home as condemned, grabbing 40% of a city's water capacity and violating the Great Lakes pact.
Ireland chose not to become a corporate whore this time but has tried American style corporate socialism in the past. Have you heard of the potato famine? Chances are you heard wrong. Irish farms exported other economically productive at the same time as the farmers starved. In the more recent past Ireland did bend over to Apple, Dell and other IT companies only to have them downsize or close down once their tax incentives expired. The Irish government also used tax money to buy distressed property after the first celtic tiger property bubble burst and then they sold it to REIT vulture funds such as the one managed by Dan Quayle. Quayle makes money while Irish homelessness is skyrocketing. Deja vu to the foreign slumlords who inspired the Irish land wars a century and a half ago. This may have been a poor decision but much poorer decisions are being made every day in pursuit of short-term corporate profits.
So, this is literally 5 minutes down the road from me (when the traffic's good) ..
This isn't a popular decision here. I don't personally know anyone who had any objections at all - although we do note one of the people objecting resides on the other side of the country.
On the other hand, it's not the end of the world either. Once they're operational, datacenters don't employ anywhere near as many people as you'd think. Especially when they're single-tenant and managed off-site. And as small and rural as Athenry sounds (and looks), it's turning into a commuter town anyway. The city would be considered a very reasonable commute by American standards. (I have colleagues that can get in in 10-15 minutes - but sometimes take an hour to get home. Traffic is our major problem here, and this site would have little impact on it.)
Someone mentioned taxes. No-one's here is under any illusion that the topics are related. Denmark is not exactly a tax haven, and the two sites were announced at the same time. This is a stupid process that's been dragging out years longer than it should have, and ground to a halt enough times that the end was inevitable.
Someone else mentioned renewables. It's entirely wind here. We don't have a lot of scope for hydro; it's just too flat to support it. We do have a lot of scope for tidal, but little willingness to tamper with the picturesque coastlines when wind is so very plentiful here.
All in all, this is just a failure of process. Not the planning process itself, but the appeals process shouldn't be able to drag out so long as to destroy an opportunity. There should be a limit to how many appeals you can lose, otherwise the process stops being a battle of facts, and simply a battle of stubbornness.
I mean, imagine if you were trying to build a home - and someone a few hundred miles away objected to it. And objected, and objected. And lost every time, but was able to continue objecting until the build was no longer feasible. You'd be asking where the line is too. People should be able to object, and those objections should be able to hold some weight - I think it's fantastic that the common man can actually win against someone the size of Apple. But if the developer wins, that should mean something too.
This is what they wanted to bulldoze