Here’s a data point worth considering: More Americans say they would rather live near a nuclear power plant than a data center. You read that right. Data centers have become the bête noire of the age of artificial intelligence, according to a Gallup Poll released earlier this month. There are several reasons, notably data centers’ prodigious energy and water needs, the impact of noise and land use on local communities, and their symbolism: For most people, data centers are the physical manifestation of AI — and of its discontents, from job loss to privacy concerns. As a result, data center sustainability has become a social-license issue: • Community opposition has blocked $18 billion and delayed $46 billion in U.S. data center projects since mid-2024 — that’s $64 billion in affected investment. • At least 188 local opposition groups are now active across 40 U.S. states, advocating against the development of data centers. They are concerned about environmental impacts and local community effects. The opposition is rising amid increasing delays in projects. • At least 12 states have filed moratorium bills on new data center construction permits so far this year. • Data center project cancellations quadrupled to 25 in 2025, from six in 2024 — with 21 of those in the second half of the year alone, suggesting that the movement is accelerating. It’s not just stateside. A court in Chile suspended a Google data center after locals discovered it would extract more than 7 billion liters (about 1.9 billion…
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