Artificial Intelligence: the Backlash Against Data Centers Is Spreading Across the World
Country stars say the facilities strain water and land, while a Gallup poll found only 7% of Americans strongly support them in their communities.
- Country music stars including Brad Paisley, Tanya Tucker, Gavin Adcock, and Willie Nelson are speaking out against data center projects. Paisley recently opposed a Nashville facility located about 500 yards from a city landmark, calling it an "enormous monstrosity."
- Critics argue these facilities strain vital resources, including local water tables and electricity grids. Tucker warned of environmental damage, while Adcock claimed rural residents are "getting punished for living in the country" by outside investors.
- Data center development is accelerating in Texas, where about 248 facilities are planned, causing residents to fear industrial footprints threaten land and local businesses. A Gallup poll in May found that only 7% of Americans strongly support building data centers in their communities.
- John Rich, recently appointed "Special Envoy for American Landowners" by President Trump, suggested there may be a middle ground. He noted that Agriculture Brooke Rollins believes there is a proper way to build these facilities.
- Opposition to data centers unites Americans amid partisan division, according to researchers. Megan Mullin of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation told Rolling Stone that resistance reflects a deep affinity for where people live rather than technology skepticism.
33 Articles
33 Articles
In Race for AI Dominance, China Fans Disinformation in America
As small towns across the United States reckon with power-hungry data centers springing up, the Chinese Communist Party is muddying the waters and sowing division. By tapping into the tensions around water usage, power demands, and environmental costs, the regime is trying to widen the wedge using an old playbook: influence peddling and propaganda. There’s no discounting the groundswell of anger in American towns about data centers in their neig…
White House Moves to Accelerate AI Data Center Development on Federal Lands
The Trump administration has issued executive orders intended to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence data centers, including on federal lands, according to administration officials. The orders are designed to address rising electricity demand from AI computing and to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, the White House said. Data centers currently consume about 4.4 percent of total […]
Data centers, which are garnering attention as AI infrastructure, are facing significant backlash from local communities due to issues such as power shortages, noise, and water depletion. As job creation effects have also fallen short of expectations, projects are being halted one after another in various locations both domestically and internationally, including the United States, with measures such as suspensions of construction permits and ti…
Oregonians are extremely skeptical of data centers, new polling suggests
Two-thirds of Oregon voters support temporarily blocking new data centers that assist artificial intelligence, and nearly 75% oppose tax breaks for the facilities that are commonplace in the state. Those are among the findings of a new poll from Portland firm DHM Research that gauged voters’ feelings about AI and data centers, along with their support for public policies to regulate or support the industry. The findings are not necessarily surpr…
Pentagon Plans AI Data Centers At Military Bases
Technocrats have pried open Federal land for AI data center construction. You might have missed Trump’s Executive Order 14318, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,” on July 23, 2025, alongside the release of the “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan.” Waiting to pounce with billions of dollars were large investment companies like BlackRock,...
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