Editor’s Note: Word coming from county officials last week that CCC had sold its land near McLouth is not true. What follows are the owner’s views on a number of things, but he especially wants it known that the company has not sold out.
by Max Smetannikov,
co-founder and CEO of CCC
In a time when the world is moving towards renewable energy sources and away from fossil fuels, it’s no wonder that a company planning to use captured gas to power its colocation data center might raise some eyebrows. But it’s actually a great idea.
A disinformation campaign targeted at local residents coupled with nefarious efforts by a convicted criminal created a perfect storm. The clean up after the storm is made easy by setting the record straight with the following correct, accurate information.
Crypto Colo Center, or CCC, is a small oil and gas services company that operates several leases around McLouth. CCC sells crude oil, and uses gas to generate power and provide a colocation service by running data centers on its property. CCC also operates the largest privately owned fiber optic network in Kansas, in order to connect its data centers to the Internet.
CCC’s proposed colocation data center, near McLouth, has been attacked in the news, on social media, and in complaints to the Jefferson County Planning Commission and staff. The company plans to use otherwise wasted gas to power the data center, but a vocal group of activists have shouted their concerns against the project. Not having the opportunity to go through the planning process in the past, CCC is now hopeful that it can open a dialogue with the community in McLouth and the surrounding area, and can demonstrate that the data center will have many positive environmental and economic impacts. In order to understand who and what CCC is, take a look at its history and mission.
Founded in Kansas in 2021, CCC is providing innovative solutions to the energy industry. The company offers a variety of services, including, oil and gas operations, colocation, an internet exchange point (IXP,) and related efficiencies.
Colocation centers are an excellent way for businesses to cut down on their carbon footprint. As noted by some of our neighbors, they are notoriously energy-intensive, but by using captured gas as part of their own energy source, CCC is able to offer clients an affordable, energy self-sufficient, and environmentally friendly option for their colocation needs. Specifically, flares only combust about 93% of methane, which is a super potent greenhouse gas. By converting it to energy CCC can reduce CO2-equivalent emissions by about 63% compared to continued flaring.
In Jefferson County, CCC plans to capture, otherwise wasted gas on its oil and gas fields and convert it into electricity to be used to power its colocation data center. Its clients would house their computing equipment on CCC’s site, using that captured energy for the required power for its computing equipment along with the other colocation services CCC provides.
And it’s not just about saving the environment—it’s about saving money, too. Because CCC has full control over its own energy source, it can pass those savings on directly to its clients in the form of lower prices for colocation services.
Committed to being a good neighbor, CCC plans to work with the community. Just one of many community projects CCC is proposing is to use CCC’s fiber optic network to provide free internet connectivity to nearby schools, public services such as police and volunteer fire departments, and nonprofit organizations.
Despite its full name, CCC is not a cryptocurrency company nor is it a crypto mining company. At the time of incorporation, the name was chosen to highlight the innovative way the company uses captive gas and by gas to create a green and community-friendly revenue stream.
CCC is endeavoring to bring an affordable colocation data center service solution to its clients, ensuring that customers are not dependent on the power grid and local internet services, upon which many municipalities and communities are reliant.
Other rural states with developed oil and gas industries welcomed this solution. This year, North Dakota and Wyoming passed laws that give tax breaks to oil producers that provide natural gas to projects like CCC’s, which convert the wasted gas into energy that would otherwise have been vented into the air, flared, or injected back into the ground. The latter two options have considerable environmental and noise concerns. Currently Kansas is considering legislation that would provide similar sales tax exemptions.
While endeavoring to obtain a conditional use permit (CUP) from the Jefferson County Planning Commission, CCC has recently gotten more than its share of bad publicity; a result of a dirty public affairs campaign by a group attempting to take over CCC’s leases and use them for the same purposes, but without the moral compass that CCC’s corporate culture has. CCC will be in a better position to provide full information on this item, once its legal claims have been officially filed against the interlopers.
The following categorically refutes some of the opponents’ most egregious lies:
• CCC has never looked to change McLouth’s zoning to industrial. Agricultural zoning allows CCC to use its gas disposal equipment, which is a part of the data center-enabling equipment.
• CCC has never worked in secrecy. CCC and its legal team were, and are, in consistent contact with Jefferson County officials, as they should be, being under the County’s jurisdiction.
• CCC has never lied to anyone or stolen a dollar from anyone. CCC is honest to a fault. Its officers have a history of philanthropy to, among other organizations, those organizations that champion human and environmental protection. Statements to the contrary are nothing but defamation against the company, which it takes extremely seriously.
• Crypto is not a shady business. Over $600 billion worth of crypto is owned by U.S. individuals and institutions (ChainAnalysis). Your pension fund is more likely than not diversified into crypto;
• Generators and mining containers can be noise-canceled/mitigated. The fact that some companies, in the data center space, save money by eliminating noise cancellation equipment from their operations, thus abusing their neighbors, doesn’t mean that CCC is going to do that. CCC won’t. CCC’s plan demonstrates comprehensive noise mitigation solutions.
• CCC is taking nothing from its neighbors. Not water, not power, not gas. The company’s business model depends on using its own mineral resources to provide for all of these things in-house.
This business model is the future of Kansas’ oil and gas industry, and represents a new dawn for McLouth, maintaining the rural nature of the county while adopting green energy practices and improving connectivity. CCC is deeply committed through our actions – not just our words – to ensuring that the community and county see it the same way.
Max Smetannikov is the co-founder and CEO of CCC, Crypto Colo Center, the integrated oil, gas, self-power generation and distributed data center company.