In a new op-ed on NJ.com, business and labor leaders jointly wrote about the need for greater education as it relates to data center development in New Jersey.

NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka and IBEW Local 102 President Bernie Corrigan said that their op-ed was not “a case for approving every project” and Gov. Mikie Sherrill was correct in calling for transparency and community review as part of her recently announced data center plan

But the business and labor leaders came together to say there has been much fear and misinformation spread about AI data center growth in the state and that New Jersey, as the Innovation State, “cannot let misperception outrun opportunity.”

“We should be positioning New Jersey as a leader in AI innovation at exactly the moment that position is worth something,” Corrigan and Siekerka wrote.

“National and global economies are at an inflection point, a bold new era of innovation. Data centers are investments for this era. The states that understand this are already ahead. New Jersey should be one of them.

“The last thing we want to do in this rapidly advancing space of AI is to put a firewall around New Jersey being a leader in this emerging new economy,” they said.

Siekerka and Corrigan said that while many communities are asking the right questions where data centers are being considered, residents are sometimes provided misinformation from organized opposition to those facilities, specifically in the areas of electricity costs, water usage, emissions, noise levels and community impact.

Here’s how they set the record straight in those areas:

On electricity costs: “Electricity rates in New Jersey are set by utilities and regulated by the Board of Public Utilities, not by data center operators. Here's the sharper question we should be asking: Is the data center operator funding the new infrastructure it will require?

“If the utility builds it and recovers the cost through rates, that bill lands on residential customers. If the data center operator funds it directly, there's no infrastructure cost to pass along.

“The responsible ones do the latter, as we see with the CoreWeave project in Kenilworth, which is funding its own substation construction and procuring  clean energy at a premium for the facility. The new capacity they build will serve the broader grid, not just their own facility. That's the standard that communities should be demanding.”

On water usage: “During construction, the cooling system requires a one-time water fill. After that, it runs on a closed-loop design that circulates continuously, moving heat through the system year-round without drawing on the local water supply.

“For context, that initial fill is roughly what an 18-hole golf course uses in a few days. Once operational, day-to-day water use at the facility amounts to what you'd expect from any office building of similar size for break rooms and bathrooms.”

On emissions and noise: “The industry is moving toward carbon-free energy procurement, and software improvements have driven dramatic efficiency gains.

“As for noise levels, New Jersey law sets hard limits: 50 decibels at night, 65 during the day. For context, 50 decibels is a quiet room and 65 is about the same as background music in a coffee shop. The facility has to stay below that after 10 p.m. These are enforceable standards, not suggestions.”

On community impact and jobs: “Before the first server goes online, a data center does something tangible for the community hosting it: it goes on the property tax rolls. That revenue flows directly to local school districts, which in New Jersey are perpetually underfunded and perennially dependent on Trenton to make up the difference.

“For local employment, critics point to low permanent headcounts at individual facilities. That framing ignores contractors, on-site tenant workers, suppliers, and the broader economic activity that a large permanent facility anchors.”

Corrigan and Siekerka also said that large, permanent infrastructure attracts businesses that depend on reliable digital capacity.

“Suppliers, contractors, and service providers tend to put down roots near the anchor facility,” they said. “That's not theoretical. It's how regional economies have always built around major infrastructure investments.”

To read Siekerka and Corrigan’s full NJ.com op-ed, click here.