GoKawiilAI companies have a compute problem. As the usage of artificial intelligence is increasing among working adults in the U.S., computing power has become a precious resource that hyperscalers cannot ignore. To that end, we've seen a significant explosion in the number of planned data center projects throughout the globe. But those efforts are now facing roadblocks from local communities.
Just this week, a small town in Missouri ousted half of its city council for not doing their due diligence in protecting local communities from the harms of AI data center construction, and they're pushing to remove the rest of them, the mayor included. A resident of Claremore, Oklahoma, was arrested in February for speaking too long during a town hall meeting to discuss a data center project. In Virginia, voter support for data centers has collapsed to just 35% from 69% in 2023, halting efforts to build what would have been one of the largest data centers in the country.
Suffice to say, while major data center projects are the darling of tech CEOs and many politicians, the general populace is making its voice heard; through collective action, they are putting the brakes on $10's of billions of dollars of investment and derailing the plans of major corporations. As of the time of writing, half of all planned U.S. data center builds have been delayed.
Article continues below
Making small voices heard
2025's major AI infrastructure announcements carried a measure of inevitability. OpenAI was investing $100 billion here, $300 billion there, and Nvidia's chips were going to consume tens of gigawatts of power the world over. Regardless of all the talk of circular investments surrounding these companies, the projects were going to go ahead, regardless. Politicians fawned over the big numbers and the growth potential these major companies would bring to their local areas.
But while these data center projects might promise temporary construction jobs and investment in local communities, they also bring the potential for water contamination, skyrocketing energy prices, and even air pollution as companies ship in 'illegal' gas turbines just to get the servers up and running.
So, local communities have pushed back in major ways. Where their local politicians would listen, they worked with them to halt these projects in their tracks. In Maine, Reuters reports that lawmakers recently passed a bill that would place a moratorium on new data centers over 20 megawatts in power being constructed until October 2027, giving time to conduct analyses on the construction process and how it might affect local communities and utilities.
The Tulsa City Council ultimately issued a temporary moratorium on data center construction through the end of the year. A San Marcos city council voted in February to reject a rezoning effort that would have cleared the way to build a 200-megawatt data center next to a local power station.
Parks over data centers
... continue reading