On March 16, the global AI infrastructure company Nscale announced that it will seek to acquire American Intelligence & Power Corporation (AIPCorp), including the Monarch Computer Campus in Mason County, West Virginia. In response, Ohio River Valley Institute issued the following statement:
If the project goes forward according to plan, Governor Morissey and residents of the mid-Ohio River Valley will be stunned at how small an economic contribution such a large and expensive facility will make. That was the experience of counties in the upper Ohio Valley that participated heavily in the Appalachian natural gas boom, which involved even larger levels of investment and which also left communities struggling with job and population loss.
That outcome is likely to be repeated with the Monarch project because it, like the natural gas boom, is a highly capital-intensive, non-labor-intensive enterprise, which means that little of the money that’s invested, and even less of the revenue that the facility earns, will ever enter the local economy. The problem is compounded by the governor’s and legislature’s decisions to waive sales and use taxes and to dilute property taxes for host counties.
The region’s prior experience also shows that, during construction, the facility’s demand for skilled labor will raise costs and crowd out other kinds of development. And the facility’s reliance on natural gas will add significantly to both local and global pollution.
Residents of the mid-Ohio River Valley deserve development that delivers real, lasting economic benefits—not projects that shift risk onto communities while profits flow elsewhere.
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