Public comment corpus
Imperial Irrigation District
May 15, 2026 · Data-center session · 1 spoken public comment
Official meeting recording (Granicus)
| Speaker | Time | Comment (verbatim) |
|---|---|---|
| Jake Tison | 0:47:37 | Good morning, Madam Chair and Board. I'm Jake Tyson, and this kind of feels like a moratorium. It really does without being forced onto us or voted in. And I was here on December 9th, and I heard the presentation then, and I learned a lot that night as well. And since then, history has kind of... shown itself. So today, the IID is telling the truth. The county has been trying to hide. Large-load data centers are not normal development. IID says these projects can require major transmission, distribution, generation, power supply, and system upgrades. And now IID is proposing a large-load tariff to protect ratepayers from subsidizing private industrial projects, data centers, AI, industrial infrastructures. Okay. So IID's draft tariff says large-load service would be interruptible at IID's sole discretion, and the customer would not be entitled to compensation to reduce charges if IID cuts power. So that's kind of why they plan non-firm grid. So the question is like, you know, what hyperscale AI data center can actually operate on interruptible power? If they cannot tolerate interruption, then what comes next? More generators, more batteries, more industrial infrastructure, more air, noise, fire, safety risks pushed onto our communities. And we just found out through a geospatial analysis through the CEO of the county, Dr. Lang, with her emails, you know, stating that catastrophic risk. It was pretty bad. So and also today, we're also witnessing data center interests entering the IID District 1 race. Okay. A candidate publicly tied to the developer's political messaging. So as we go to the polls, we should all be asking ourselves, is this race about protecting IID rate payers, farmers, families, and the grid, or about helping a private data center developer get access to public power? IID's own tariff proves the risk is real. I hear it. I think everybody I know that we've been involved in this data center have really been hearing it. You know, no backroom. No backroom. No backroom politics. No rate payer bailout. No candidate pipeline for data centers. Imperial Valley's power belongs to the people, not hyperscale developers. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tyson. |