Latest / Taking Initiative / Spotlight: Conserve Ohio attorney Austin Baurichter says "Step on the path"
Transcript
- Laura Lucarelli: We are here today with Austin from the Conserve campaign. ⁓ Welcome, Austin. Austin Baurichter: Thank you, Laura. Laura Lucarelli: I am really excited to talk to him for a number of reasons. But one, he's one of the five people on the original petition that went to the attorney general when the banning of mega data centers, was filed back in March, which really wasn't that long ago. can you just give us a quick intro who you are and how you got involved? Austin Baurichter: Sure. So my name is Austin Baurichter. I am a volunteer with Conserve Ohio. I'm one of the five committee members on the petition, along with my wife Karley, and then Andrew, Jessica, and Nicole Gerber. ⁓ I'm an attorney and I'm also one of the two co-drafters of the petition. So myself and another gentleman who's an attorney named Nick Owens, he and I are the ones that put this together. Laura Lucarelli: So when you put it together, it the two of you over coffee or beer saying, Hey, what a cool idea? Take us back through what got you to the point of doing that? Austin Baurichter: Yeah. For sure. it was the two of us over a series of late night phone calls. ⁓ but yeah, as I mentioned I'm an attorney. Um I worked at a law firm in downtown Cincinnati called Bricker Graydon Wyatt ⁓ I ended up resigning from that law on February sixth ⁓ after I read some ⁓ concerning posts on Facebook from community members who were really Upset with the firm ⁓ about firm's involvement in these data centers. And it was actually from those posts and everything that I even learned that the firm was involved at all. I voiced those concerns internally first, which were not met with any sort of response that I was. Going to address that or even take a look from a moral standpoint about what was going on. So on February 6th, I resigned and I let them know that I was resigning continuing to work at that firm put me at a moral crossroads. And so ⁓ truly I felt compelled to. resign from the firm and do what I could to help my neighbors. ⁓ I live out here in Brown County, ⁓ a little village called Higginsport, which is on the Ohio River. and so I I I truly felt that I ⁓ could no longer ⁓ lend my time, talent, and efforts to firm that was the interests of these data center developers across the state that I saw as harmful both to myself, my family, and my neighbors. ⁓ and so and and I'll this is getting to the answer to your question, so don't worry. ⁓ but I resigned on February 6th. it took about like a month for me to get affairs in order because it was an abrupt resignation. I did not plan on it. one night as I lay awake wrestling with it, it just became clear what I had to do. so I resigned. ⁓ I then ⁓ in March, ⁓ I think it was Tuesday. Let me check on the calendar here. I'll tell you the exact date. March third. I went up to Mount Orab, which is a village in Brown County where there's a large pending development there. I think it's like 1200 acres or so. ⁓ I was new to All this, I went to the village council meeting there. ⁓ I sat in the audience and I saw a gentleman named Nick Owens, who was already ⁓ working on the moratorium in place that the village had. I saw him stand up and I I could tell that he had been working on that. And I found out that he was another lawyer and ⁓ saw he was doing, saw that he was ⁓ active and And working on you know protecting the community. So after that meeting, I went up to him, I shook his hand, I said, My name's Austin, just my job. What what are we doing? You know, what's up? ⁓ How we gonna handle this? ⁓ and so he ⁓ and I tell right away we were two different people. we have different different backgrounds, but at the same time, both of us wanted to help our communities. ⁓ Laura Lucarelli: Wow. Austin Baurichter: we looked each other in the eyes, shook hands, and and decided to help. And so ⁓ that week we had a spent just just met him, but we kind of were like, let's ride, you know. And so we spent a ton of hours on the phone ⁓ talking what we could do. ⁓ And thing that was clear to both of us was that ⁓ the legislature ⁓ all the way from the state on down to the localest level, you know, the village of Mount Orab the Ohio legislatures were ⁓ all along some spectrum of apathetic, not wanting to do anything to outright hostile to their constituents who are concerned about these data centers. So, you know, the first question was: is there a way that the people of Ohio can speak act directly that bypasses this, legislature that's not doing anything for one reason or another. You know, it's it's very much a feeling of it's the people or nothing. ⁓ and so naturally we kind of alighted on this idea of the ⁓ to get a amendment on to the Ohio Constitution And so once we decided that, we kind of set to work together ⁓ to figure out how best to do it. And ⁓ so that's kind of the you know the gist of it, Laura Lucarelli: thank you for sharing. I I was not aware that you quit your job really because of the principle of this. So you are you are fully invested in this, which is huh. Austin Baurichter: Put it all on the line, baby. I took I I had some money saved in retirement. I I took that out, you know, to get by as much time as I could and ⁓ you know just try to do what I can. Appreciate that. Laura Lucarelli: Man of Principles. Wow, that's really something. So all right. So my first question for you as as you're drawing this up. So in Ohio, we have three constitutional abilities. in our constitution, citizens can bring three things directly to the ballot. Referendum, which would be repealing something, ⁓ statutory. Austin Baurichter: Yeah. No. Laura Lucarelli: initiatives which would be a law change or a constitutional amendment which is what what you guys are going for. I'm ⁓ obviously referendum's not an option until there's a law to repeal. Can I ask how the two of you came about with a constitutional amendment as opposed to a statutory initiative? Austin Baurichter: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes, ⁓ for sure. The constitutional in short, it's it's difficult to chip away. It's more difficult for a legislature to chip away at a constitutional amendment in in ⁓ is our position rather than a statutory. ⁓ although we are I know that we are seeing legislative efforts to chip away you may recall the the marijuana ⁓ petition or whatever that that passed. I I forget the name of that, but ⁓ and I'm not following that too closely, but my understanding is that Laura Lucarelli: Yes. Austin Baurichter: That efforts are being made to more or less chip away at it. So nothing's truly impervious, but again, our goal was to. find a vehicle to carry forth the voice of Ohioans and and preserve that. And so the in the constitutional amendment, as you mentioned, the initiative petition, ⁓ which bringing something on, was the way to ⁓ one, the legislature and two, protect that decision as much as we could from ⁓ any legislatures to tear it down or pick at it or slowly kind of chip away at it. So we wanted to give the people a voice ⁓ and the people protection to use that voice. Laura Lucarelli: since nobody's closer to this than you are, give me a two-second summary of what the amendment would do if it were to get into our constitution. Austin Baurichter: I'll it up here just so I can reference it. I like to start, with the operative phrase. And it says, as I said, the construction of a data center is hereby prohibited. So ⁓ we tried keep it as simple and straightforward as possible. ⁓ And that for several reasons. One, you obviously want clarity when you have laws on the books, but two, as you're as you're familiar with, when you advance an initiative petition, it has to go before the ballot board before you can start your wider circulation of signatures. And if the ballot board Ballot board determines that it is not what quote unquote one issue. They'll have they'll split you up into multiple. ⁓ Petition amendments. So we anticipated that, and so we obviously wanted it to be one, and so we were trying to keep it unified. And so, you know, a simple, single sentence in our mind was about as ⁓ issue as it gets. ⁓ and so that was and and we did get past the ballot board. They determined that it was one issue. ⁓ that was April 2nd. ⁓ but then where you where you kind of get into get into the the nuance of it a little bit is the the definition of the term data center and the definition of the term construc tion which we ⁓ took a of pain and carefulness to define in the amendment. the plain language of the once it gets enacted is that it would prohibit the construction of a data center over 25 megawatts ⁓ and that's An aggregate monthly energy usage of 25 megawatts across whatever energy source. And again, that was intentional because there's discussions of all kinds of different you know of energy of all these data centers. There's a lot of varieties of them. ⁓ and so when we were putting this together, we tried to keep in mind all the different varieties, all the different ways they can be implemented and things like that. ⁓ I think everybody that knows about this does a pretty good job summarizing it. It prohibits the construction of a ⁓ large data center, in layman's terms. Laura Lucarelli: I don't know lot about electrical, you know, usage, but I'm I'm guessing twenty five megahertz was a very intentional number. How did you research that? How did you determine that was the number? ⁓ Thank you. Thank you. Austin Baurichter: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mega yep, megawatts. ⁓ yeah, you're good. You're good. ⁓ Yeah, that was that was both Nick and me. ⁓ again, we both have families, so every night, you know, or every day me and him would be like, you know, ten o'clock PM midnight, after the kids go to bed, we we kind of s talk it through. And and so we came at it from two different ways. ⁓ One thing that Nick did he cross-checked and th was back in March. and so what he did was he kind of did a canvas. Of what other states and across the country, what kind of legislation was pending or in existence at the time that we were putting this together. So he he did a research in a sampling I think this is just off memory now, but Florida, Colorado, ⁓ and a number of other were discussing or looking at legislation to do something about data centers. And the 25 number was, ⁓ if memory serves, tied with like the lowest. I think Colorado was looking at, I don't know if it was. Laura Lucarelli: Thank you. Austin Baurichter: moratorium or some sort of restriction, but the threshold that they decided was 25. I think Florida was looking at 30 megawatts. So you know this was around that size. And In conversation, the two of us were like, okay, let's think in terms of like the large ones, large on up, because I know then it gets to like the hyperscale, you know, and these are like loose buckets. But we were thinking large on up. and the rationale for that was that was a couple things. but the two words that we kept coming back to while we were kind of hashing this out and discussing it were the words reasonable and practical. ⁓ one, because of that this is a constitutional amendment, a petition for a constitutional amendment, you need a tremendous amount. signatures which means in order to even accomplish it we would have to get buy-in from a large swath of Ohioans right and so if you take a more radical position then ⁓ you might not ⁓ get buy-in. ⁓ personally my personal Austin preference would be ⁓ I would I've said to on the phone like I I would rather see a single shovel full of dirt moved in this state ever again for data centers. But I know that not everybody wants that. the other big thing we were thinking of too, ⁓ and this gets into ⁓ the definitions, is that wanted to cast a wide net under the definition of a data center. wanted to make it a very broad definition ⁓ so that, people can't, developers can't like try to a loophole in that and say, well, you know, we're not a data center, we're a data storage center, and that's a little different. ⁓ To catch that, but then at the same time, we were like, okay, well, if we cast a wide net, we don't want to accidentally catch up legitimate Ohio businesses that may need a server room, for example, or may may need to have store their data for their actual business. Like we we kept thinking, like, you know, if you are a law firm, you right, a lot of law firms have a lot of client data that they need to store in servers. And so ⁓ if our definition was so ⁓ that it technically could encompass, storage rooms for businesses, then those businesses would come up and say, hey, like, this is stupid, you know, like this is too broad. and then potentially a court would be like, we're gonna strike this off the books because it's too broad, it's too vague. Arguably anything under the sun can fall under that. So ⁓ we wanted to, again, be reasonable and practical with it and and find a way to ⁓ be very precise with what we were targeting, but also anticipate and try to, you know, work around any possible loopholes. So as I mentioned, Nick was looking at what other legislatures were doing across the country. I then started ⁓ researching primary and secondary sources more on the scientific end. And I'm not a I don't have a a science background. ⁓ but I did research One of the things I started to see was was many, many of these articles ⁓ were referencing this one study. It was this study done by Berkeley. ⁓ and it was conducted in 2024, it was published in 2025, and it was a study tracking data center development across the country and and looking at it from energy consumption stuff like that. And so I looked at that study and saw they were defining as the threshold of like large to then hyperscale, ⁓ if I recall, they had a smaller that they said was large. again like we kind of tested it and cross-checked it against various things. But I looked at that study. ⁓ I I looked at the ⁓ US Congress on their website, has a an article about data centers and things like that. So I just tried to consume many sources pr both primary and secondary, ⁓ as I could about it and get a sense of what you know the industry was articulating and and d deciding where the large ones are not, you know? I also, looked at basic things like, okay, for reference, like how much electricity does one household consume per month? ⁓ And I think it's, kilowatts. So ⁓ I just to educate myself as much as possible and then look to the scientific sources see how they were classifying it. And so ⁓ Nick and I then ⁓ Smushed all of that together, his research on the legislatures, my research on, ⁓ the of the more nuts and bolts scientific part of it. And then we're like, okay, you know, how are we gonna do it? And and honest to God, like we were laughing at this in a way because we were just sitting here like, dude, ⁓ no one else is doing this. were both just like, if no one this, then no one's gonna stop it. No one's gonna even try. So we were just like, we're just two dudes sitting here in our pajamas late at night, like. Putting this thing together, you know, but like someone's gotta do it. And I'm really proud of us one thing that that lawyers do is you you always think through hypotheticals, right? Like how how would I stand up and defend this in court? How would I argue this in court? If somebody wants to come in and and attack this, you know, ⁓ what would I say? and I I feel confident in myself, I feel confident Nick, and I trust and believe that the two of Of us did this to the 100% best of our abilities. We we really took the time to think through it and and at the same time we both told each other we're just human beings, you know. if this comes crashing down ⁓ because of a mistake one of us made, we'll forgive other because at the end of day we we stood up and tried to do something. But that 25 megawatt was was a lot of a lot of back and forth. And ⁓ and also Nick and I both had different views on it, know. And and there was a tension between the two of us ⁓ and our personal views coming into play. And ⁓ so, know, we had difficult conversations, but we both agreed and stuck to our agreement to work together to actually do something. And so he made concessions where he would personally have wanted maybe something a little different. I made concessions where I personally maybe wanted something different. ⁓ And the of us together did something that neither of us could have done alone. So that's the long-winded answer of the of the 25. And one thing that's been surprising is that was even a different world in in early March than it is now. And and one of the things I hear people saying a lot now is like, why didn't you guys go go harder or do do more? You know what I mean? ⁓ And and my answer to that what I just said, because you know, we wanted to cast a wide net, but we didn't wanna get it invalidated. Like there were these legal, ⁓ sort of technical reasons why. We chose that. Nick put it in a good way the other day. He said, We wanted to create a basic floor of protection, right? If we can get this on, ⁓ and Ohio says, look, we're not gonna have any bigger 25, right? That's the basic floor of protection for everybody in the state. Individual communities can can then go in and say, we want to do more than that, we don't want any, right? We can have our community-level, you know, village, city, township, what have you, level legislation that's says, above and beyond this, we're not gonna have a darn one. but we yeah, we wanted to set a baseline. And again, we we had to we have to get buy-in from 400,000 plus people, you know, really realistically 500,000 plus because obviously some of the signatures are gonna get bumped. So in order to get widespread approval support, you have to be reasonable and you have be practical. And that's what we were trying to do. Laura Lucarelli: set a baseline and give permission. Yeah. Very very interesting to hear kind of the back and forth and and and how you did that. So now that it is circulating, you know, I I believe you helped present it to the ballot board, is that correct? ⁓ and congratulations meet meeting that hurdle. ⁓ and you guys are full in on signature gathering. ⁓ and you know, ⁓ we that they're due July first ⁓ if gonna make the November ballot. Austin Baurichter: Yeah. Yes, I did. Mm-hmm. Appreciate that. Yeah. Well in baby. Yes, yes, correct. Laura Lucarelli: It do do you guys have like an internal, do or die for 2026? Just curious if there's a timeline that you're personally working on. Austin Baurichter: Yeah, our personal goal is July first, and until July first comes and goes, that remains the personal goal. we've only sped up the efforts and increased the and the efforts since day one and and day after day, that literally continues to be the case. And so we're still one hundred percent, doing everything we can for July first. But at the same time, you know, we have a a county leader meeting every week. ⁓ you know, from the get-go, we've said, this is our goal, but ⁓ the signatures don't expire. If if we get it on obviously we'd rather get it sooner than later because of how aggressive these developments have been, If the state legislature could do a statewide moratorium, that would be wonderful. ⁓ But the sooner the better. But from the beginning, we've said this this goes beyond July 1st. We are absolutely not not going to stop. We we are confident that it will get on the ballot. And so, you know, it's kind of that dual track mindset kind of thing. ⁓ still going pedal to the metal but ⁓ looking at the numbers. And that's why we made the decision to be ⁓ totally transparent about the numbers we have that tracker on the website which is kind of the unofficial that's like self-reported ⁓ that number is a ⁓ typically a bit ahead of what we in hand This is about everybody. This is not about some, wizard of oz person behind the curtain pulling strings. in my mind, we are all equals working toward the same thing. And so everybody's entitled to have a full knowledge of where we are and what's going on. So no one's like pretending anything, but at the same time, when you set a goal ⁓ until it's certain whether you either it or didn't, you still pursue it. So ⁓ we're gonna pursue it all the way up to July and then when July first passes, we'll go from there. Laura Lucarelli: what role actively are you playing on the campaign now that it's been submitted? I mean you're obviously in it to win it. Austin Baurichter: well I still am a practicing attorney. I quit my job, so I still have to make the bills. ⁓ so I kind of juggle regular old matters that ⁓ clients are, you know I'm grateful enough that people trust me to handle their stuff So I obviously have have that. ⁓ And that's the too. We all have lives. We all I've got my family, got my kids, you know, we got six cats and two dogs. So just kind of doing my thing on that. But with regard specifically to the petition, I would say the thing that I do the most is Put people together that seem like they could really gel. ⁓ I get a lot of phone calls and I get a lot of emails, which I'm getting more comfortable with that. That was something that was not at all my norm in my life at all before I started this. but I get a lot of calls and I get a lot of emails from people and I see, ⁓ this person seems really good at this. This other person called me and they seem really good at that. So, ⁓ you know, I bet they could do something together, you and so that's how our website formed. Charles called me up and said, I'm pissed off about the price of RAM going up because of these data centers. What can I help? ⁓ He's like, I'm good with computers. I'm like, buddy, you know, Donna was heading up our website before that and Donna said that she needed some help, so get on over there get on over there with Donna, dude, you know. So then Charles and Donna rocked it with the website. So I guess I do a lot of Laura Lucarelli: Together. Austin Baurichter: back end organizing. Nick and I ⁓ continue ⁓ pretty much day ⁓ troubleshoot think through potential legal hurdles, like you all things like that. ⁓ And otherwise Monday w went up and testified. so it it's kind of all of us in that core little group, we're all just trying to ⁓ Keep it together. And ⁓ you know, physically, legally, emotionally, socially, organizationally, you know, and I always to say this is like the biggest high school group project ever. ⁓ and so there's there's troubles, there's hard conversations, there's misunderstandings, there's egos, but the end of the day, it's truly all of us united together for a common purpose of ⁓ literally conserving the state, conserving our communities and it's been an honor of a lifetime, honestly, to to meet all these people and and work with all these people, ⁓ of whom are so different from each other. And and that's one of the biggest things too, the biggest through lines is people are like, I've never done I've never sat side by side with, you know, ⁓ a a a liberal. I've never sat side by side with a Trumper, you know, and so the reality of ⁓ the commonalities between all of us been something that has been, ⁓ dare I say, refreshing and motivating and reducing. Rejuvenating and empowering for all of us. So yeah. Laura Lucarelli: That's wonderful. Yeah, that's really wonderful. And and you know, and I've I've talked to some of the ladies that you've been working with on this campaign and found out they didn't even know each other before this came up. they weren't even friends. ⁓ And you're like blood now. I mean, you're spending so much time together yeah. ⁓ Austin Baurichter: Right, Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. The best compliment we got was some that somebody was like, You guys are good vibes. And and and it's fun ⁓ to say that and it is humorous, but in my opinion, that is the number one most important thing ⁓ is you know, the vibes. And I and not saying that sarcastically, I'm not saying that tongue in cheek. ⁓ if you want to put it a different way, like the number one most important thing ⁓ is The trust, the community, the transparency, the communication, the integrity. and when you have all those things, the the vibes are great. And we and it ⁓ I terrified of what's happening in our state and our country? Absolutely, every day. But Would it would I be more terrified if I was just watching this happen? Yes, and I was terrified watching this happen. That's why I quit my job. I I was scared, I was frightened, I felt alone. And I think a lot of people feel slash felt alone just watching what feels like things become so abnormal and strange that you feel like you're upside down. ⁓ and and and I think that this has brought you know like I can smile and I can enjoy interactions and I can enjoy the energy while knowing how serious it is. And I and I think that's really special and and that's something that our core group has worked incredibly hard to maintain. we've turned down with groups who want to work together only on the on the provision that we like share contact info, with people. we're not about that. we only contact each other as much as it serves ⁓ the purpose of getting this done. we we are ⁓ truly committed to not like selling out, to not, you know, ⁓ Doing anything that would that would break the trust that we've all gained in each other. we obviously wanna win, we wanna do that, we wanna actually do this. We don't want to just be, you know, to use the term like virtue signaling, we're gonna be squeaky clean, perfect from like a on-paper virtue thing. we wanna get it done. ⁓ but so far I've been super proud that the trust is there and the integrity is there, and we we're we're not gonna sacrifice that. ⁓ we're gonna get it done with that. if we can't then ⁓ That would be sad. if you can't do something like this in this world, ⁓ if can't get this on the ballot and keep our integrity, then that's indicative of an even bigger problem. but I believe we're going to, and we're gonna show that you can do it just by banding together and not being paid. in a world where gas is nearly five dollars and we're all ⁓ stretched to begin with, we're we're stretching even farther. because what you gotta do ⁓ to preserve the things you love and to preserve the law to preserve your community. And I'm a man sitting here talking to you, but you said the ladies, and is way more women than men so far. ⁓ I I would I want to see more dudes coming up, dude. You know? ⁓ but but I've tried it, I know, I know. But ⁓ but yeah, I gotta give a shout out to the ladies because it's a fact that Laura Lucarelli: All right. See what you can do about that, huh? Austin Baurichter: The ladies are carrying this on their backs right now. So, and it's important to note that. Laura Lucarelli: Boy, we talked a lot about a lot. I I'm just really grateful how open you've been about the process and and the integrity behind what you're doing. do you have any advice for somebody who's maybe thinking, I wish I had the guts to do what they're doing with their own ⁓ You know, how do you jump in? Why do you jump in? Austin Baurichter: Yeah. Yeah, that's a difficult question. and anybody can just say, you know, just do it, right? And that is the answer. ⁓ but I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there's a lot that goes underneath that answer. I on Monday, like I'm a privileged person. in the grand scheme of things, it was easy for me to do this, but even it being so easy, you know, as a white man as an attorney with power to to do something like that, I still struggled mightily with fear, ⁓ you know, and nervousness and anxiety. ⁓ just even things I saw in my job while I worked there that made me not feel so good. You know, it took a long time for me to find who I was ⁓ and to ⁓ be able to make that choice. And it took a amount of time and energy of from my wife who ⁓ who her name's on the petition too and she's working just much every day as I am. ⁓ And also helped me find my voice, you know? So I I had a lot of help. and and so too does anybody you know, hopefully does anybody out there watching this and thinking about it. And if you feel like you don't have help, shoot me an email. ⁓ Or send a letter, my address is on the frickin' petition, you know? You just gotta go out and do it and decide to go out and do it and take that first step. And if you need help with support for that, ⁓ likely, you know, almost certainly you're not alone. So go out there and talk to people. When I when I quit my job, I sent a group, even before I met Nick and did this, I sent a group text like a few buddies, and I was like, what's up, guys? What are we gonna do? You know? ⁓ ⁓ And you know, there was that same like, "I don't know, like, can we do anything? It doesn't feel like we can do anything at all, you know?" And That kind of sat me back down because I felt the same thing and I was like, how am I gonna answer that question? And and the only answer I could come up with was just take one step on the path. Just put one foot on the path, whatever that means, you know? And I I texted back and I was like, you know what, you're right. I don't know what the first step is, but how about I promise ⁓ let's meet up again in two and I'll think of an idea, even if it's outrageous, you know, and and we'll talk about it. Like just step on the path. I think people are seeing that and I'm I'm happy for it. And if anybody's thinking about stepping on the path, give me a shout, give any of us a shout. You probably know somebody even closer to you in your life who's a volunteer and circulating this thing. Like we all make each other better. Laura Lucarelli: Super kind of you to offer. Austin, I've really, really enjoyed talking to you ⁓ we we will be in touch. I I can't wait to hear what happens next. Okay. Thank you. Austin Baurichter: Yeah, definitely. Thanks, Laura. Yep, appreciate you.