Eastern Kentucky has heard big promises before. In 2017, Braidy Industries pledged a $1.3 billion aluminum mill on land just north of Interstate 64 in Boyd County. The company repeatedly failed to meet its investment goals, left behind an L-shaped imprint in a field that sat vacant for 28 years, and drew angry criticism from legislators who watched unkept promises leave the region no better off. The state eventually recovered its $15 million investment and returned the property to the industrial authority, where it has remained until now.

That is the same industrial park where TeraWulf, a Maryland-based Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing company, just announced plans to build what could become the largest data center in Kentucky history. The Muskie Data Campus could consume as much electricity as a city the size of San Francisco by 2030. It sits on a former strip mine. It will depend on a utility that, according to the Kentucky Resources Council, does not currently have enough capacity to serve its existing customers.

The project has real potential. TeraWulf is paying full industrial rates with no tax incentives or special exemptions. Local officials negotiated hard. The site sits next to an Ashland Community and Technical College trade school campus, creating a direct pipeline for local workers. If the commitments hold, this could be transformative for a region that has watched its economy shrink for decades.

But commitments need to be binding. Legislation that would have protected Kentucky ratepayers from subsidizing energy infrastructure upgrades built to attract tech companies died in the state Legislature this session. Kentucky Power is planning to build a new natural gas-fired plant at the former Big Sandy coal site 30 miles away, with officials insisting it is unrelated to the data center — but the timing is not coincidental. And there remains an unresolved question about who pays the final 3% of transmission upgrade costs that neither TeraWulf nor the state has clearly accounted for.

Eastern Kentucky deserves this investment. It also deserves the truth about what it is getting.

We are calling on TeraWulf to enter into legally binding community benefit agreements guaranteeing local hiring preferences, wage floors, and partnership with Ashland Community and Technical College before construction begins. We are calling on the Kentucky Public Service Commission to publicly resolve who bears the remaining transmission upgrade costs and to establish enforceable protections ensuring existing ratepayers never subsidize infrastructure built for this project. We are calling on the Kentucky Legislature to revive and pass ratepayer protection legislation before the substation construction is approved. And we are calling on Governor Beshear to require full environmental review of a project sited on former strip mine land before permits are granted.

Eastern Kentucky has been promised enough. This time, put it in writing.