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Heather Kimball

Hawaiʻi County Council Member for District 1 (North Hilo, Hāmākua, Waimea) and former Council Chair, also a panelist on Hawaiʻi Island public-affairs programs.

Oct 19, 2026

9:20
I wanted to ask you, what's the motivation for the legislation?
9:24
So the reason I started it and started it now is that For the last four or five years, I've been part of the National Association of Counties Energy, Environment, and Land Use Committee.
9:38
And the last couple of years, the chair of that committee has been from Loudoun County, Virginia, which if you don't know Loudoun County, data center alley.
9:47
They have the most data centers of any county within the United States, or they did until most recently.
9:53
And he had a lot of discussions with us from that energy, environment, land use perspective about the pros and cons and impacts of data centers on communities.
10:04
And so he had put together a white paper that had already given me a sense that we want to Get ahead of this, really control the situation and not let it run amok as it has in that area.
10:18
I also, through various other connections, I have had some conversations with other county administrators where they were actually starting to experience situations where investment was made in infrastructure for data centers in a commitment that they were with an understanding that they were going to come and build a facility there.
11:28
So knowing that we're on the radar, obviously, and that this is one of these things is how, what are we specifically, you know, trying to get in front of as this comes? I mean, you just mentioned a couple of things, but, you know, what is the specific thing that we're trying to get ahead of here? Yeah.

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