$15 Billion one with Google flag name going in just west of St. Louis in rural Montgomery County, MO. Lots of municipality and counties fighting them tooth and nail. What about your area?

The original draft of the Big Beautiful Bill had a provision in it that had a 10 year regulation block allowing these data centers to circumvent any federal, state, or local planning and zoning ordinances. Thankfully there were a few congressmen that got it removed before passing. Otherwise a lot of towns would have been run over by developers.

They may create jobs for the construction phase, but once they are complete they will mostly be run by computers.

ol' dad

Here in Sask our provincial government pushed one through. There was lots of local pushback and local government council members resigned due to ethical concerns over the land agreement. The government then just appointed local councilors that don't live there and pushed it through with a unanimous decision.

Generally........data centers started popping up in the US in the 1990's..........they supply fast computing to businesses, allow apps on your phone to work, and provide electric power to critical infrastructure like hospitals in times of emergencies.

The push back against them today is being funded by the same left wing organizations that have tried to terrorize and brainwash people about climate catastrophe since Al Gore. In fact, Gore's horror movie was initially supported by the same gang of lefties. The crux of the issue is that these groups are still opposed to fossil fuels.

Look for names such as Eric Schmidt, 11th Hour Project, Arabella Advisors, Bill Gates, Sunflower Services. Bernie Sanders & Our Revolution, Greenpeace USA, Friends of the Earth.......they are all behind the opposition to data centers.


It's just my opinion but I think data centers are a good thing in the long run even if the usual suspects are supporting them.

It is rather delicious irony that the same tech big wigs that tried to scare people into socialism via climate change are now experiencing pushback against data centers for Silicon Valley technology.

They are between a rock and a hard place. Don't let them confuse you.

I’ve got a friend who is up to his eyeballs in that Montgomery County fight.
County commission there tried to slide it through without communicating with county residents.
Apparently they use a ton of power and water.

So, why are people against them in your area??

Data Centers are a must for Businesses to run efficient, we need for National Security, and for economical growth in our country.

No one wants oil rigs on their land but were would you get gas to run your car. Change is hard but to sustain and be competitive and have a country with growth we need them.

They do use a lot of power but many of the centers that have been proposed are also providing their own power through stand alone generating facilities on the same site. That MIGHT reduce power costs to the general population in the area.
As to water use......the total usage of water for proposed data centers is calculated at 0.2 % of total water usage in the country.

Golf courses in the US consume 4.2 % of national water usage.

If people want cellphones and internet to work they have to let it happen.

one of our senators is pushing for data centers paying for 100% of the cost of utility upgrades they require. So like... when they double the power usage the cost of increasing power generation doesn't fall on everyone equally, it goes to the data center that requires it.

That makes sense to me. I strongly support that.

Other than making sure they don't offload their costs onto everyone else, I don't understand the backlash. Its like people are looking for a reason to rant and data centers drew the short straw.

I think the biggest gripe is that local governments are ignoring the wishes of the people. The data centers are largely gov. subsidized via tax exemptions, abatement's, or credits, but will employ few people, relative to their economic size. They will also use a large supply of resources.

I guess the question is, is it for the good of the public?

ol' dad

Would you rather the data centers be in China?

BTW the almond industry is far worse than data centers as far as water usage

If they want this >>>Data Centers are a must for Businesses to run efficient, we need for National Security, and for economical growth in our country.
If most of these changes the public aren't educated enough on the subjects. Yep no one wants change but we all want the benefits.

I don't think that is the question.

This is going to happen whether we like it or not.
The question is....or should be IMO........

Do we want MSFT, GOOG, SPCX, META, AMZN. NVDA, PLTR, ANTHO.........etc to be the ones that build and operate it or do we want BIDU, Huawei, Deep Seek......etc to do it ?

As public awareness is growing on costs, tax / fee burdens, and resources, public support is dropping like a rock.

Here is some insight to states imposing bans/restrictions

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-data-center-restrictions-us-states/

it seems clear that many councils are getting paid off

the power concern is real it will take many 100s of houses worth of power to supply these data centers and it will mainly go up as waste heat.

to put it simply every power saving appliance , every CFL or LED lightbulb in the last 40 years power savings will be eaten by data centers in a year or two.

We don't even have the infrastructure for electric cars....that's been my questioning on this. I've been told by a few We Energies guys that is will take 15-20 years to build the structure that is need for less than what is projected needs

They want to put a data center in my rural county. People are fighting it hard. The main concern appears to be that they will draw tremendous amounts of groundwater for cooling and that releasing that water will destroy Cedar Bog, which is actually a fen, that has cold water environment, dependent plants and animals that are endangered in Ohio.

The amount of anger directed at the potential data center has surprised me. A bunch of older white women actually sound like they would attack it from their posts. I suspect they are karens.

Keith

when a bunch of liberals are like , we need to open and make new nuclear power plants after railing on them and trying to shut them down for the last 40 years , you should be taking a step back and asking what changed , what is your motive and why are you selling out Everything you have preached for the last 40+ years.

I haven't formed an opinion one way or another yet. I'm interested in what other folks opinions are and why.

ol' dad

They do their homework and they play dirty. I’m a 7th generation farmer. I had ground taken from me through eminent domain for a new water treatment facility…… that water treatment facility ended up being created solely to cool googles computers at their already 2 current and expanding facilities. Now, conveniently 20 years later, they want a bunch of my land for AI centers. Apparently it’s an attractive thing when you have land next to big water and big power. They offered my dad six figures an acre for 120 acres, he told them to pound sand and then he died of cancer. I’m 7th generation on this land and I’ve made it clear there’s no amount of money that intrigues me. They too can pound sand as far as I’m concerned. In the end, they’ll find loopholes holes, pay off the city or govt and ultimately take it through eminent domain, but as God as my witness, it’ll never be because I sell anyone a thing. You can have whatever opinions on Data centers you want, but until you have one threatening your way of life for 7 generations, you’ll never understand.

A lot of that comes from which set of facts you listen to. The facts from those pulling permits to build, reality, or the embellished that float the internet. If mining operations can recycle their water, why can't data centers? If the draw of electricity exceeds the infrastructure, who's actually paying for it to be rebuilt? I'm not a HVAC engineer, but holy moly is there a lot of RTU's going up