Data center backlash set to sway midterm elections
Opposition to AI data centers has moved from planning commissions to state and federal races, with voters in roughly three dozen cities and counties considering November ballot measures to restrict or ban them. A UMass Amherst poll found just 11% of Americans support a data center in their community, while 65% oppose one, with opposition crossing party lines over power costs, water use, pollution and farmland loss.
Politicians who once courted the industry with tax breaks are now running against it, prompting complaints from activists about closed-door deals and non-disclosure agreements. Leading the Future, a tech-backed Super PAC, is spending in races on both sides, with co-leader Josh Vlasto arguing the backlash conflates the industry with a few bad actors.
The group has separately been linked to a fake-journalist AI news operation and a dark-money campaign paying influencers to hype competition with China. Nationwide, data centers use about 49 gigawatts today, with nearly 350 gigawatts more planned or under construction, equal to roughly a quarter of current U.S. generation capacity.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.