Americans Are Increasingly Turning on Data Centers
Newsweek · C · trust 61/100
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Sixty-three percent of U.S. voters oppose AI data centers being built in or near their community, according to a new poll by Emerson College, up 21 percentage points from when the question was last asked in December 2025.
The sharp increase shows just how dramatically the tide has turned on a technology that was promised to bring widespread riches and abundance to Americans but has proved to come at costs many are unwilling to pay—including higher electricity bills and fears of shrinking water supplies.
The Emerson College poll , conducted between July 19 and 20 among 1,100 likely 2026 voters, found that Americans are generally more concerned (63 percent) rather than excited (14 percent) about artificial intelligence, while 22 percent are neither concerned nor excited about it.
When it comes to the actual facilities necessary to feed and run artificial intelligence and machine learning models—which 62 percent of Americans interact with several times a week, according to Gallup—skepticism increases with voters' educational level.
Those with higher degrees of educational achievement oppose data centers most strongly, according to Emerson: 79 percent of those with postgraduate degrees oppose them, a 27-point increase since December, and 72 percent of those with college degrees, a 25-point increase since December.
Among Americans with a high school degree, 37 percent oppose AI data centers, a 9-point increase since December.
Overall, only 27 percent of U.S. voters support AI data centers being built in or near their community, while 10 percent are neutral.
Americans' "not in my backyard" approach was also confirmed by a Redfin survey released on Wednesday. Conducted in May among 4,000 adults, the survey found that 53 percent of U.S. residents opposed building a data center in their area, while 34 percent supported it.
Some 65 percent of baby boomers and 60 percent of Gen Xers opposed the construction of an AI data center in their neighborhoods, according to the Redfin survey, compared with 42 percent of Gen Zers and 43 percent of millennials.
Significantly, U.S. residents were more likely to oppose data centers in their neighborhood than any other type of building, with a new apartment complex nearby, for example, being opposed by 39 percent of respondents.
"A buyer recently asked me, unprompted, to make sure there wasn't a data center planned near a home she was considering," Matt Ferris, a Redfin Premier agent in northern Virginia, said in a statement.
"I have another client who recently moved into a community in Gainesville, in Prince William County, where there are several data centers. About a year after they moved in, they said they probably would have chosen a different location had they known there were so many data centers nearby," he added.
"People are concerned about noise, increased traffic, heavy water and electricity use, and how a large industrial building might change the feel of their neighborhood. Right or wrong, the perception is that data centers will change neighborhoods in a negative way," Ferris continued.
According to the Data Center Opposition Report, which is documenting the rapid rise in grassroots opposition to hyperscale AI data centers across the U.S., there are now at least 430 local data center opposition groups spanning 40 states that are organizing through Facebook. Of these groups, 192 were created in 92 days over the past three months, the group said.
Since December, membership through this group has grown seven times bigger.
While states once considered tax breaks to lure AI data centers to their territory, they are now scrambling to slow down their rapid expansion over growing concerns for the centers' thirst for water, land and local resources, as well as their impact on nearby communities.
Earlier this month, New York became the first in the nation to impose a statewide freeze on new hyperscale data centers, with Governor Kathy Hochul announcing a one-year moratorium while environmental standards are developed. Hochul said the move was intended to address concerns such as rising utility bills and resource consumption.
Other states are considering similar moratoriums or have attempted to introduce them. In April, Maine lawmakers passed legislation for an 18‑month moratorium on new data centers over 20 megawatts, but Democratic Governor Janet Mills vetoed the bill .
Similarly, Virginia failed to pass a temporary statewide ban on AI data centers earlier this year, which would have halted approvals for new centers until July 2028, or until energy-grid interconnection backlogs were addressed. The proposal was tied directly to concerns over power demand from data centers voiced by concerned citizens and critics nationwide.
Oregon has enacted a moratorium preventing new data centers from accessing the state's major Enterprise Zone tax-break program while a state advisory committee studies their impacts on energy, the economy and the environment.
In Illinois, lawmakers have proposed the POWER Act, which would require large data centers to do the following:
Lawmakers in other states—including Delaware, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin—are considering restrictions or moratoriums on data-center construction.
While lawmakers across the country try to react to Americans' growing malaise around data centers, newly released data found that there are benefits to the communities hosting them.
A Redfin analysis of county financial records found that Virginia's two largest data-center hubs , Loudoun and Prince William Counties, have seen far faster growth in education spending than neighboring counties over the past 15 years.
Loudoun County houses 176 data centers, more than double the number of any other U.S. county.…
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