8 ms·

Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built

50 points by mapping365 1mo ago

boc 1mo ago
One under-discussed topic is whether Americans hate data centers in their neighborhoods, or whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods.
- b40d-48b2-979e 1mo ago
  whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Or the increased pollution (air, light, and sound) from having a warehouse-sized building of GPUs next to you. I'm already annoyed by my neighbors having spotlights pointed at their own houses or leaving garage lights on through the night that shine in through my bedroom windows.
  - rzerowan 1mo ago
    Im wondering why the typical design is a warehouse with horizontal sprawl . Wouldnt it make sense to go vertical up or down . Smaller footprint if insidea a metro area by having a skyscarper type data center , as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment. Or have a Silo type structure going down if in a more rural area to not blight the landscape.With added advantage of dampenig on the sound pollution (although not sure what effects a humming underground building will have on subterrerean life). Probably cost? All those would cost more that the biz are willing to spend , while putting up four walls and a roof is ordeers of scale cheaper.
    - rtkwe 1mo ago
      It's cheaper to build out rather than build up. Datacenters are mass dense so building up requires thick floors and supports for the upper floors.
    - lbriner 1mo ago
      Definitely cost although your idea does sound more attractive. A small footprint much further away from the boundary than normal. You could even make them look nice but since demand is massive and timescales so long, I think anything that might take longer is a "no".
    - dylan604 1mo ago
      Coming from a construction family, the saying oft heard saying was "it's more expensive to build up than out". Also, zoning codes can set limits on how tall of a building can be built. Four stories is a common limit which also happens to coincide with the max height for a timber construction is also four stories. If you're out in the 'burbs, you probably wouldn't want to see a random 10 story boring windowless concrete building sticking up somewhere.
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        I see you've been to Avalon Studios.
    - b40d-48b2-979e 1mo ago
      as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment I worked in Cleveland, and the AT&T building there was one such case. I heard their cabling went 3 stories underground on top of being around 50 floors tall.
- sulam 1mo ago
  The typical inhabitant of a town that is a good candidate for data center construction is suspicious of authority, hates big tech companies, has heard AI is coming for their job, and consequently not a supporter of data centers, regardless of how they're powered.
- palmotea 1mo ago
  > One under-discussed topic is whether Americans hate data centers in their neighborhoods, or whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Actually, Americans hate Silicon Valley and AI, the data centers are just a concrete proxy: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jasmine-sun.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas...: > It’s A.I. as sort of an avatar for a small group of Silicon Valley billionaires’ ability to impose their vision of the world onto everybody else without their consent. > And I think that’s also what I hear echoed in these data center debates. It’s not just: It’s going to use this much water or that much water. I frankly think that even if there was no misinformation about water use, people would be just as angry about the data centers. > ... > And what happened? The data center developers sued Saline Township, a town of, again, a few thousand people, saying: Wait, no, this is exclusionary zoning. You can’t have no industrial use in your entire township. And when a town of that size is getting sued by a giant A.I. data center developer, they just settled. > They were just like: Fine, give us a few million for the fire department and for some schools, and this fight is not worth it to us. But that, to people, felt like a profound violation of little-D democracy. > It felt like the dark money in politics story, which is: You have some very rich companies show up with a bag of money to your politicians. They don’t tell anybody else what’s happening. The politicians aren’t allowed to tell their citizens and involve them in the decision-making process, and they themselves work out a deal — a deal that is fundamentally asymmetric because of the amount of money on one side — that will then transform the image of your community, your lived reality, into the world that these tech companies have decided for you. > And so I think that the data centers, in that sense, are a very visceral microcosm of the way that a lot of people feel that A.I. is showing up in their lives.
  - nancyminusone 1mo ago
    That Saline datacenter is the one I live closest to. I actually know a couple people who live right next to it. The above is basically what happened, but done in the open after that first lawsuit, to the tune of "do what we say or we'll sue you into bankruptcy and then get our way anyways". Mist recent, the datacenter's cost has shot up to ~50 billion, fow which they decided they wanted a tax break of 50% for 12 years, and it was granted using the same methods. also, they named the datacenter project "The Barn" as an extra slap in the face, like look at how quirky and rural we are. I would actually have more respect for them if they had named it "Fuck You Saline".
- JohnFen 1mo ago
  At least in my part of the US, the datacenters built (and planned) are not running their own gas generators, but are just as hated here as they are most other places due to the other adverse impacts they have.
  - wiether 1mo ago
    Aren't all DC equipped with gas generators as backups? And they have to run it for an hour every quarter to make sure they work?
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      Probably, but that isn't the problem people have with gas generators. Musk is running 30 of them 24/7 to power xAI because there isn't enough grid capacity in the area, and he removed exhaust filters for efficiency and gave several entire towns permanent chronic asthma from NOx poisoning.
  - Legend2440 1mo ago
    I don't really think it's about the adverse impacts. That one in utah everybody hated was gonna be built in an empty valley. There would have been no impact to neighbors because there weren't any, and no impact to the grid because they planned to build their own nuclear power plant.
    - tempfile 1mo ago
      They are being built to support an industry which is itself an adverse impact.
    - mindcandy 1mo ago
      Are you talking about the Box Elder County Stratos project? I did some digging into that. AFAIK, they are mostly going to be powered by a natural gas pipeline. I haven't heard of them using nuclear. Got any links? It is in a remote valley. And, it's going to use less groundwater than the previous use of the land. The only things to really complain about are huge amounts of gas consumption and AI bad. If the locals pinned them down to building out solar and mini-nuke power, the only thing left would be AI bad.
- arctic-true 1mo ago
  I think the “in their neighborhoods” thing is really the key. These things have got to be poison for property values. Younger, less wealthy people have economic anxiety about AI for fear of displacement and oppose data centers on that basis - more data centers = more AI. Older, wealthier people have less intrinsic reason to oppose the technology. But anything that threatens property values, be it a data center, a jail, a landfill, et cetera, must be resisted at all costs.
- bs7280 1mo ago
  I hate that I am subsidizing the power bills for these data centers.
  - 0xy 1mo ago
    So you would support the construction of data centers with completely off-grid power sources that you did not subsidize? Didn't think so.
    - bs7280 1mo ago
      What about my comment gave you the confidence to (incorrectly) answer your own question for me? I want to see large investment in mass produced nuclear power plants, enabling us to do exactly what you are suggesting.
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        Oh boy. I can't wait to see what the people who remove the exhaust filters from their gas turbines would do with a nuclear plant.
        bs7280 1mo ago
        https://www.valaratomics.com/ https://www.valaratomics.com/
    - nvme0n1p1 1mo ago
      What a goofy comment. "I hate that my tax dollars were used to bomb Iran" "So you would support the bombing of countries that aren't Iran?"
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        It was actually "so you would support a billionaire bombing Iran with his own dollars?"
        1mo ago
- georgemcbay 1mo ago
  I'm sure there are various reasons why specific individual Americans hate data centers, but in the aggregate I think the main unifying force is that Americans hate the rapidly growing (and already larger than the gilded age) wealth inequality that is making their lives shittier if they don't already own significant capital. At a national level, the political establishment is doing nothing useful to fix this problem and is instead making things much worse. Many people are very upset about this, but it is is going to take years to fix this problem electorally (though I do believe it is possible for this to happen, given all the recent evidence that giant political money spends on status quo candidates are increasingly not working and arguably starting to have the opposite effect of being toxic for the candidates who receive them). Data centers are a flashpoint of leverage where the rightfully pissed off populace has the ability to use local political power to take a stand and throw a wrench into the system today rather than 2/4/6/8 years from now.
- forgotpwagain 1mo ago
  And also their electricity bills rising because of datacenter power demands.
- goda90 1mo ago
  People are going to assume any data center project will have all the worst possible qualities. And a this point I'd say they're justified given how much dishonesty and corruption has been flying around. I don't envy any company that's being open and taking steps to mitigate issues because all the others have caused this hostile environment.
  - notyourwork 1mo ago
    Seems there is opportunity for a company to rise to the top if they take a stance that buys societal goodwill.
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      But then they wouldn't make a profit. This whole thing is highly speculative. Most of the buildings won't get any use, and the ones that do will be strictly the ones with the lowest costs.
- threatofrain 1mo ago
  Would they hate them as much if they were in a Chinese neighborhood? Why not build in China? We say there's not much jobs here anyway, and that it's all negative externalities.
- rainsford 1mo ago
  The gas turbine thing really is justifiably killing the public perception of data centers since the obvious message is that even if your local data center isn't destroying your quality of life with incessant noise, it's only because they have decided it's not in their best interest to do so right now and that decision could change at any moment. As long as that is a possibility ever, you'd have to be nuts to want a data center built anywhere near where you live.
woah 1mo ago
It's sad. For all the lamenting that the US is losing industrial capacity (or lost it long ago), we can't even handle some of the lightest industry possible. A big building that hums and releases slightly warm water, and the only sector in which we could still be called a world leader. Instead of trying to find property tax arrangements that work to give municipalities a big payoff, and power supply arrangements that could be an opportunity to boost the green and nuclear sectors, we have political hobbyists jumping on a bandwagon of misinformation.
- ransom1538 1mo ago
  You are a voice a reason.
- Dylan16807 1mo ago
  A building that makes no physical products and has barely any workers isn't the kind of industry we lament losing. But I would say datacenters are fine if they're prevented from screwing up electricity prices and have proper pollution controls.
  - inigyou 1mo ago
    Why wouldn't we lament losing it? If all else was solved, a DC is just as valid industry as any other. The fact that the provided service is nonphysical doesn't matter - every industry is different. Should probably pay taxes though, and not terrorize the neighbors.
    - Dylan16807 1mo ago
      The reasons to care about "industry" in particular are process knowledge and highly skilled labor and supply chains. Datacenters have very little involvement in any of those. And they don't bring many jobs.
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        So basically your opinion is that data centers should not be illegal. Great! Let's start by dismantling the one serving your internet connection.
Tempest1981 1mo ago
I'm surprised they haven't tried painting them "Go Away Green", vs stark off-white monoliths. https://themeparkarchitect.com/go-away-green-disneys-paint-color-to-remove-ugly-things/ https://themeparkarchitect.com/go-away-green-disneys-paint-c...
- palmotea 1mo ago
  I don't think that would work. Per your article: > While many theme park fans may initially believe there is only one ‘magical’ go away green color that was developed by Imagineering, that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are a plethora of varying shades of green hues developed and utilized by Walt Disney Imagineers, and other theme park designers, depending on the theme park’s location and surrounding color palette. There's no color that would make an building that takes minutes to pass at highway speeds "go away."
  - Tempest1981 1mo ago
    In that case, try the "Blue Cube" method, like the old Onizuka Air Force Station near Moffet Field. https://heritageparkmuseum.org/blog/what-is-the-blue-cube https://heritageparkmuseum.org/blog/what-is-the-blue-cube
mapping365 1mo ago
I think it can't be categorized as NIMBYism because the underlying sentiment is not just no data centers in my backyard, but anyones backyard. It's about the AI project itself, even if it expresses itself differently for a local context.
- Retric 1mo ago
  NIMBY may be the incorrect term, but objecting to building something that raises your electricity bill extends how far your “back yard” goes. Objecting because it raises your ram prices extends that to a global scale.
- christophilus 1mo ago
  I’m fine with datacenters being built as long as we have some rules: they have to be quiet enough to not be audible beyond the border of the land owned by the datacenter. They have to pay for new electrical capacity so that they don’t burden locals with that externality. Really, that’s it. I think most people could get behind that.
  - varenc 1mo ago
    Theres always going to be some negative externality effecting people that live near anything getting built. Even if the operational data center isn't loud enough to be heard beyond its property lines, the construction process will be louder. I'll also negatively effect peoples views and cause generally increased activity in the area. But that all seems fine as long as not egregious. But for anything to get built, housing or data centers or what not, we have to accept that those right next to any building project will experience some negative externalities.
  - MinimalAction 1mo ago
    No. If they still draw an enormous amount of water, that's the finite resource that's getting wasted no amount of money could immediately retrieve. Paying for electricity doesn't mean the resources are not shared.
    - 1mo ago
WhiteDawn 1mo ago
Clearly hyperscalers are seeing datacenter commitment exceeding demand, and are now running PR campaigns to have the public push back against construction to get them out of their contracts. Joking conspiracy theories aside, perhaps the over-commitment was part of the plan with the expectation that there will be rejections from government
TimTheTinker 1mo ago
The rumor is going around on X that foreign enemies of the US (especially China) are trying to influence Americans through social networks against building data centers.
- boothby 1mo ago
  This wouldn't be the first time that homegrown dissent was characterized as foreign meddling. Red Scare is back in vogue.
  - bigyabai 1mo ago
    In fairness, a lot of Red Scare propaganda did stem from grounded and realistic espionage concerns. McCarthyism was a total overreaction in hindsight, but had roots in pervasive foreign meddling. For the past 100 years, America has been a target of influence campaigns from both foreign and domestic organizations.
- Lucasoato 1mo ago
  I’m extremely suspicious of this, but have no way to prove it or collect data related to it. Even more, I’d really doubt that is a US interest to let the public know if such campaign is happening against non-US countries, so I don’t expect Meta, X or whatever to kindly inform me about that.
  - colechristensen 1mo ago
    Zoom out and ask yourself which injustices the popular voice care about and which they don't. There is a hard to miss tendency for the things which get the most noise to be the most useful to national adversaries. You can't mention specific incidents here for comparison because the comments will be filled with disagreements and accusations about the specifics not the big picture. Search yourself for things that are getting attention and not getting attention and judge for yourself how useful each would be to external powers.
- rtkwe 1mo ago
  There are plenty of reasons to be against datacenters and I see some people trying to say the possibility that it's foreign influence illegitimates the opposition.
Legend2440 1mo ago
If there's one thing Americans can agree on, it's that we don't like building things.
- notyourwork 1mo ago
  Why should we? Corporations steamroll the public, take their tax breaks and ask for more.
  - Legend2440 1mo ago
    Because ultimately those things (apartments, high-speed rail, mines, factories, datacenters, etc) exist for the benefit of the public. We give tax breaks because we recognize that these things are beneficial to the economy and want to incentivize their construction. Some countries go even farther and directly subsidize development.
    - aselimov3 1mo ago
      Whether data-centers and AI are actually beneficial is still somewhat of an open question with large groups on both sides. So unclear how beneficial data centers are to the general public.
    - goda90 1mo ago
      "Privatize the profits, socialize the losses" So many of these things DON'T benefit the public, especially as automation reduces the number of jobs they produce. They mostly benefit the capital holders and they'll take steps to increase their profit even if they hurt the public in the long run.
      - Legend2440 1mo ago
        Nonsense. Who consumes the goods produced by the factories and mines? Who lives in the apartments and takes the high speed rail? Automation is also a massive boon to the common man. It's the only reason we're not both dirt farmers right now, and is responsible for most of the increase in standard of living over the last two centuries. Your views are short-sighted.
0xbadcafebee 1mo ago
Interesting video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbe-Ev-Yns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbe-Ev-Yns) explains how water consumption is a nearly fixed unit per DC and will be the major limiting factor in DC growth. The physics of heat removal requires water at one stage or another (evaporative cooling at the DC, or cooling the power plant to generate power to dry-chill at the DC) and we have a finite amount of water. Even if people weren't protesting DCs, we would hit peak DC when we run out of water, which isn't far off. A major drought will likely disable large amounts of the economy that depends on AI that depends on water.
gyanchawdhary 1mo ago
Coming from a third world country (emerging/developing for the sensitive souls) .. and having many friends from former Soviet countries, one thing we all seem to agree on is the sheer luxury rich countries have .. it’s like a cancer of prosperity .. where a society becomes so successful that it starts attacking the very things that created its success ..
- goda90 1mo ago
  AI data centers aren't the source of America's prosperity. In fact many arguments can be made that they will contribute to its loss.
  - gyanchawdhary 1mo ago
    I respectfully disagree
BoggleOhYeah 1mo ago
It may have been the AI CEOs bragging that they’re going to take everyone’s job away. Maybe one day, Silicon Valley will learn that their insufferable arrogance is not a virtue for everyone outside of their bubble.
- threatofrain 1mo ago
  You can see this as an American thing if you want... but you might look at the rest of the world to ask whether you're trying to convince the world to un-invent gunpowder. If China gave superior paid offerings we might just start transferring all our data over to them instead. Anyways, have we considered building our compute infrastructure in China's backyard instead?
  - BoggleOhYeah 1mo ago
    I’m not asking anyone to do anything. I’m saying the AI industry created their own problems by thinking the general population would eat their shit with a smile like their sycophants do. For a bunch of people that considered themselves smarter and better than the general populous, they don’t understand people very well.
  - inigyou 1mo ago
    All your comments are just China China China China China. AI as envisioned by billionaires is pretty stupid. I think we'd be better off if we tricked China into building it.
    - bofadeez 1mo ago
      [flagged]
      - inigyou 1mo ago
        I see the China China China China China account is an alt of the Fable Fable Fable Fable Fable account.
chermi 1mo ago
I for one am not surprised.
lbriner 1mo ago
We see the same thing in the UK and probably lots of countries. Data Centres are large, expensive and secretive so most people will have all kinds of theories about why they are to be resisted at all costs. * Job attrition because "AI". * Blamed for high energy prices * A totem for high wealth individuals * A lot of building for not that many jobs * In small countries like the UK, some are a massive blot on the landscape compared to their surroundings Oh, but at the same time, we want everything to be cheaper. But not with AI. Or Data Centres.
rurp 1mo ago
The most surprising thing to me about the data center backlash is how surprised a lot of people in tech are about it. The public tradeoffs seem pretty terrible from the perspective of folks who aren't spending all day enamored with agentic coding loops, aka normal Americans. There have been a number of utility related scandals, with residential power bills doubling as data centers go in and water being illegally taken for their use. In the online arena most people are exposed to AI as social media slop and dumb chatbot features being crammed into every piece of software they use. Long term, the goal for this buildout is to drive millions of people out of their livelihood. But maybe a rogue AI will go nuts before then and become even more catastrophic. So people are looking around, seeing their physical space being worsened in order to make their digital lives worse, with the possibility of much more misery to come. No kidding they aren't a fan. It's interesting that the companies building these haven't even tried to smooth over the public relations until recently. I get it, this is all terribly exciting for VCs and a subset of techies, but their inability to even comprehend the objections shows what an extreme bubble they are in. The rest of the country gets a vote, and snidely dismissing everyone else as a knee jerk NIMBY, or Chinese shill, or illogical moron isn't going to convince anyone.
- red-iron-pine 1mo ago
  > Long term, the goal for this buildout is to drive millions of people out of their livelihood. Remember HN -- this applies to most of you, too
insane_dreamer 1mo ago
Datacenters haven't been a huge problem until now -- it's 1) what they're being used for (AI that clearly benefits the largest companies and threatens to decimate jobs while providing little tangible benefits for the average person so far), and 2) the rate at which large companies desire for them to be built and the consequent demands on water and electricity at a time when these resources are already under considerable strain (not to mention that we're supposed to be _reducing_ energy production to mitigate the effects of climate change)

50 points by mapping365 1mo ago

boc 1mo ago

One under-discussed topic is whether Americans hate data centers in their neighborhoods, or whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods.

b40d-48b2-979e 1mo ago
whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Or the increased pollution (air, light, and sound) from having a warehouse-sized building of GPUs next to you. I'm already annoyed by my neighbors having spotlights pointed at their own houses or leaving garage lights on through the night that shine in through my bedroom windows.
- rzerowan 1mo ago
  Im wondering why the typical design is a warehouse with horizontal sprawl . Wouldnt it make sense to go vertical up or down . Smaller footprint if insidea a metro area by having a skyscarper type data center , as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment. Or have a Silo type structure going down if in a more rural area to not blight the landscape.With added advantage of dampenig on the sound pollution (although not sure what effects a humming underground building will have on subterrerean life). Probably cost? All those would cost more that the biz are willing to spend , while putting up four walls and a roof is ordeers of scale cheaper.
  - rtkwe 1mo ago
    It's cheaper to build out rather than build up. Datacenters are mass dense so building up requires thick floors and supports for the upper floors.
  - lbriner 1mo ago
    Definitely cost although your idea does sound more attractive. A small footprint much further away from the boundary than normal. You could even make them look nice but since demand is massive and timescales so long, I think anything that might take longer is a "no".
  - dylan604 1mo ago
    Coming from a construction family, the saying oft heard saying was "it's more expensive to build up than out". Also, zoning codes can set limits on how tall of a building can be built. Four stories is a common limit which also happens to coincide with the max height for a timber construction is also four stories. If you're out in the 'burbs, you probably wouldn't want to see a random 10 story boring windowless concrete building sticking up somewhere.
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      I see you've been to Avalon Studios.
  - b40d-48b2-979e 1mo ago
    as i recall AT&T used to have such windowless anonymous buldings scattered in some cities for their equipment I worked in Cleveland, and the AT&T building there was one such case. I heard their cabling went 3 stories underground on top of being around 50 floors tall.
sulam 1mo ago
The typical inhabitant of a town that is a good candidate for data center construction is suspicious of authority, hates big tech companies, has heard AI is coming for their job, and consequently not a supporter of data centers, regardless of how they're powered.
palmotea 1mo ago
> One under-discussed topic is whether Americans hate data centers in their neighborhoods, or whether they actually just hate gas turbine generators running 24/7 in their neighborhoods. Actually, Americans hate Silicon Valley and AI, the data centers are just a concrete proxy: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jasmine-sun.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas...: > It’s A.I. as sort of an avatar for a small group of Silicon Valley billionaires’ ability to impose their vision of the world onto everybody else without their consent. > And I think that’s also what I hear echoed in these data center debates. It’s not just: It’s going to use this much water or that much water. I frankly think that even if there was no misinformation about water use, people would be just as angry about the data centers. > ... > And what happened? The data center developers sued Saline Township, a town of, again, a few thousand people, saying: Wait, no, this is exclusionary zoning. You can’t have no industrial use in your entire township. And when a town of that size is getting sued by a giant A.I. data center developer, they just settled. > They were just like: Fine, give us a few million for the fire department and for some schools, and this fight is not worth it to us. But that, to people, felt like a profound violation of little-D democracy. > It felt like the dark money in politics story, which is: You have some very rich companies show up with a bag of money to your politicians. They don’t tell anybody else what’s happening. The politicians aren’t allowed to tell their citizens and involve them in the decision-making process, and they themselves work out a deal — a deal that is fundamentally asymmetric because of the amount of money on one side — that will then transform the image of your community, your lived reality, into the world that these tech companies have decided for you. > And so I think that the data centers, in that sense, are a very visceral microcosm of the way that a lot of people feel that A.I. is showing up in their lives.
- nancyminusone 1mo ago
  That Saline datacenter is the one I live closest to. I actually know a couple people who live right next to it. The above is basically what happened, but done in the open after that first lawsuit, to the tune of "do what we say or we'll sue you into bankruptcy and then get our way anyways". Mist recent, the datacenter's cost has shot up to ~50 billion, fow which they decided they wanted a tax break of 50% for 12 years, and it was granted using the same methods. also, they named the datacenter project "The Barn" as an extra slap in the face, like look at how quirky and rural we are. I would actually have more respect for them if they had named it "Fuck You Saline".
JohnFen 1mo ago
At least in my part of the US, the datacenters built (and planned) are not running their own gas generators, but are just as hated here as they are most other places due to the other adverse impacts they have.
- wiether 1mo ago
  Aren't all DC equipped with gas generators as backups? And they have to run it for an hour every quarter to make sure they work?
  - inigyou 1mo ago
    Probably, but that isn't the problem people have with gas generators. Musk is running 30 of them 24/7 to power xAI because there isn't enough grid capacity in the area, and he removed exhaust filters for efficiency and gave several entire towns permanent chronic asthma from NOx poisoning.
- Legend2440 1mo ago
  I don't really think it's about the adverse impacts. That one in utah everybody hated was gonna be built in an empty valley. There would have been no impact to neighbors because there weren't any, and no impact to the grid because they planned to build their own nuclear power plant.
  - tempfile 1mo ago
    They are being built to support an industry which is itself an adverse impact.
  - mindcandy 1mo ago
    Are you talking about the Box Elder County Stratos project? I did some digging into that. AFAIK, they are mostly going to be powered by a natural gas pipeline. I haven't heard of them using nuclear. Got any links? It is in a remote valley. And, it's going to use less groundwater than the previous use of the land. The only things to really complain about are huge amounts of gas consumption and AI bad. If the locals pinned them down to building out solar and mini-nuke power, the only thing left would be AI bad.
arctic-true 1mo ago
I think the “in their neighborhoods” thing is really the key. These things have got to be poison for property values. Younger, less wealthy people have economic anxiety about AI for fear of displacement and oppose data centers on that basis - more data centers = more AI. Older, wealthier people have less intrinsic reason to oppose the technology. But anything that threatens property values, be it a data center, a jail, a landfill, et cetera, must be resisted at all costs.
bs7280 1mo ago
I hate that I am subsidizing the power bills for these data centers.
- 0xy 1mo ago
  So you would support the construction of data centers with completely off-grid power sources that you did not subsidize? Didn't think so.
  - bs7280 1mo ago
    What about my comment gave you the confidence to (incorrectly) answer your own question for me? I want to see large investment in mass produced nuclear power plants, enabling us to do exactly what you are suggesting.
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      Oh boy. I can't wait to see what the people who remove the exhaust filters from their gas turbines would do with a nuclear plant.
      - bs7280 1mo ago
        https://www.valaratomics.com/ https://www.valaratomics.com/
  - nvme0n1p1 1mo ago
    What a goofy comment. "I hate that my tax dollars were used to bomb Iran" "So you would support the bombing of countries that aren't Iran?"
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      It was actually "so you would support a billionaire bombing Iran with his own dollars?"
      - 1mo ago
georgemcbay 1mo ago
I'm sure there are various reasons why specific individual Americans hate data centers, but in the aggregate I think the main unifying force is that Americans hate the rapidly growing (and already larger than the gilded age) wealth inequality that is making their lives shittier if they don't already own significant capital. At a national level, the political establishment is doing nothing useful to fix this problem and is instead making things much worse. Many people are very upset about this, but it is is going to take years to fix this problem electorally (though I do believe it is possible for this to happen, given all the recent evidence that giant political money spends on status quo candidates are increasingly not working and arguably starting to have the opposite effect of being toxic for the candidates who receive them). Data centers are a flashpoint of leverage where the rightfully pissed off populace has the ability to use local political power to take a stand and throw a wrench into the system today rather than 2/4/6/8 years from now.
forgotpwagain 1mo ago
And also their electricity bills rising because of datacenter power demands.
goda90 1mo ago
People are going to assume any data center project will have all the worst possible qualities. And a this point I'd say they're justified given how much dishonesty and corruption has been flying around. I don't envy any company that's being open and taking steps to mitigate issues because all the others have caused this hostile environment.
- notyourwork 1mo ago
  Seems there is opportunity for a company to rise to the top if they take a stance that buys societal goodwill.
  - inigyou 1mo ago
    But then they wouldn't make a profit. This whole thing is highly speculative. Most of the buildings won't get any use, and the ones that do will be strictly the ones with the lowest costs.
threatofrain 1mo ago
Would they hate them as much if they were in a Chinese neighborhood? Why not build in China? We say there's not much jobs here anyway, and that it's all negative externalities.
rainsford 1mo ago
The gas turbine thing really is justifiably killing the public perception of data centers since the obvious message is that even if your local data center isn't destroying your quality of life with incessant noise, it's only because they have decided it's not in their best interest to do so right now and that decision could change at any moment. As long as that is a possibility ever, you'd have to be nuts to want a data center built anywhere near where you live.

woah 1mo ago

It's sad. For all the lamenting that the US is losing industrial capacity (or lost it long ago), we can't even handle some of the lightest industry possible. A big building that hums and releases slightly warm water, and the only sector in which we could still be called a world leader. Instead of trying to find property tax arrangements that work to give municipalities a big payoff, and power supply arrangements that could be an opportunity to boost the green and nuclear sectors, we have political hobbyists jumping on a bandwagon of misinformation.

ransom1538 1mo ago
You are a voice a reason.
Dylan16807 1mo ago
A building that makes no physical products and has barely any workers isn't the kind of industry we lament losing. But I would say datacenters are fine if they're prevented from screwing up electricity prices and have proper pollution controls.
- inigyou 1mo ago
  Why wouldn't we lament losing it? If all else was solved, a DC is just as valid industry as any other. The fact that the provided service is nonphysical doesn't matter - every industry is different. Should probably pay taxes though, and not terrorize the neighbors.
  - Dylan16807 1mo ago
    The reasons to care about "industry" in particular are process knowledge and highly skilled labor and supply chains. Datacenters have very little involvement in any of those. And they don't bring many jobs.
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      So basically your opinion is that data centers should not be illegal. Great! Let's start by dismantling the one serving your internet connection.

Tempest1981 1mo ago

I'm surprised they haven't tried painting them "Go Away Green", vs stark off-white monoliths. https://themeparkarchitect.com/go-away-green-disneys-paint-color-to-remove-ugly-things/ https://themeparkarchitect.com/go-away-green-disneys-paint-c...

palmotea 1mo ago
I don't think that would work. Per your article: > While many theme park fans may initially believe there is only one ‘magical’ go away green color that was developed by Imagineering, that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are a plethora of varying shades of green hues developed and utilized by Walt Disney Imagineers, and other theme park designers, depending on the theme park’s location and surrounding color palette. There's no color that would make an building that takes minutes to pass at highway speeds "go away."
- Tempest1981 1mo ago
  In that case, try the "Blue Cube" method, like the old Onizuka Air Force Station near Moffet Field. https://heritageparkmuseum.org/blog/what-is-the-blue-cube https://heritageparkmuseum.org/blog/what-is-the-blue-cube

mapping365 1mo ago

I think it can't be categorized as NIMBYism because the underlying sentiment is not just no data centers in my backyard, but anyones backyard. It's about the AI project itself, even if it expresses itself differently for a local context.

Retric 1mo ago
NIMBY may be the incorrect term, but objecting to building something that raises your electricity bill extends how far your “back yard” goes. Objecting because it raises your ram prices extends that to a global scale.
christophilus 1mo ago
I’m fine with datacenters being built as long as we have some rules: they have to be quiet enough to not be audible beyond the border of the land owned by the datacenter. They have to pay for new electrical capacity so that they don’t burden locals with that externality. Really, that’s it. I think most people could get behind that.
- varenc 1mo ago
  Theres always going to be some negative externality effecting people that live near anything getting built. Even if the operational data center isn't loud enough to be heard beyond its property lines, the construction process will be louder. I'll also negatively effect peoples views and cause generally increased activity in the area. But that all seems fine as long as not egregious. But for anything to get built, housing or data centers or what not, we have to accept that those right next to any building project will experience some negative externalities.
- MinimalAction 1mo ago
  No. If they still draw an enormous amount of water, that's the finite resource that's getting wasted no amount of money could immediately retrieve. Paying for electricity doesn't mean the resources are not shared.
  - 1mo ago

WhiteDawn 1mo ago

Clearly hyperscalers are seeing datacenter commitment exceeding demand, and are now running PR campaigns to have the public push back against construction to get them out of their contracts. Joking conspiracy theories aside, perhaps the over-commitment was part of the plan with the expectation that there will be rejections from government

TimTheTinker 1mo ago

The rumor is going around on X that foreign enemies of the US (especially China) are trying to influence Americans through social networks against building data centers.

boothby 1mo ago
This wouldn't be the first time that homegrown dissent was characterized as foreign meddling. Red Scare is back in vogue.
- bigyabai 1mo ago
  In fairness, a lot of Red Scare propaganda did stem from grounded and realistic espionage concerns. McCarthyism was a total overreaction in hindsight, but had roots in pervasive foreign meddling. For the past 100 years, America has been a target of influence campaigns from both foreign and domestic organizations.
Lucasoato 1mo ago
I’m extremely suspicious of this, but have no way to prove it or collect data related to it. Even more, I’d really doubt that is a US interest to let the public know if such campaign is happening against non-US countries, so I don’t expect Meta, X or whatever to kindly inform me about that.
- colechristensen 1mo ago
  Zoom out and ask yourself which injustices the popular voice care about and which they don't. There is a hard to miss tendency for the things which get the most noise to be the most useful to national adversaries. You can't mention specific incidents here for comparison because the comments will be filled with disagreements and accusations about the specifics not the big picture. Search yourself for things that are getting attention and not getting attention and judge for yourself how useful each would be to external powers.
rtkwe 1mo ago
There are plenty of reasons to be against datacenters and I see some people trying to say the possibility that it's foreign influence illegitimates the opposition.

Legend2440 1mo ago

If there's one thing Americans can agree on, it's that we don't like building things.

notyourwork 1mo ago
Why should we? Corporations steamroll the public, take their tax breaks and ask for more.
- Legend2440 1mo ago
  Because ultimately those things (apartments, high-speed rail, mines, factories, datacenters, etc) exist for the benefit of the public. We give tax breaks because we recognize that these things are beneficial to the economy and want to incentivize their construction. Some countries go even farther and directly subsidize development.
  - aselimov3 1mo ago
    Whether data-centers and AI are actually beneficial is still somewhat of an open question with large groups on both sides. So unclear how beneficial data centers are to the general public.
  - goda90 1mo ago
    "Privatize the profits, socialize the losses" So many of these things DON'T benefit the public, especially as automation reduces the number of jobs they produce. They mostly benefit the capital holders and they'll take steps to increase their profit even if they hurt the public in the long run.
    - Legend2440 1mo ago
      Nonsense. Who consumes the goods produced by the factories and mines? Who lives in the apartments and takes the high speed rail? Automation is also a massive boon to the common man. It's the only reason we're not both dirt farmers right now, and is responsible for most of the increase in standard of living over the last two centuries. Your views are short-sighted.

0xbadcafebee 1mo ago

Interesting video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbe-Ev-Yns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbe-Ev-Yns) explains how water consumption is a nearly fixed unit per DC and will be the major limiting factor in DC growth. The physics of heat removal requires water at one stage or another (evaporative cooling at the DC, or cooling the power plant to generate power to dry-chill at the DC) and we have a finite amount of water. Even if people weren't protesting DCs, we would hit peak DC when we run out of water, which isn't far off. A major drought will likely disable large amounts of the economy that depends on AI that depends on water.

gyanchawdhary 1mo ago

Coming from a third world country (emerging/developing for the sensitive souls) .. and having many friends from former Soviet countries, one thing we all seem to agree on is the sheer luxury rich countries have .. it’s like a cancer of prosperity .. where a society becomes so successful that it starts attacking the very things that created its success ..

goda90 1mo ago
AI data centers aren't the source of America's prosperity. In fact many arguments can be made that they will contribute to its loss.
- gyanchawdhary 1mo ago
  I respectfully disagree

BoggleOhYeah 1mo ago

It may have been the AI CEOs bragging that they’re going to take everyone’s job away. Maybe one day, Silicon Valley will learn that their insufferable arrogance is not a virtue for everyone outside of their bubble.

threatofrain 1mo ago
You can see this as an American thing if you want... but you might look at the rest of the world to ask whether you're trying to convince the world to un-invent gunpowder. If China gave superior paid offerings we might just start transferring all our data over to them instead. Anyways, have we considered building our compute infrastructure in China's backyard instead?
- BoggleOhYeah 1mo ago
  I’m not asking anyone to do anything. I’m saying the AI industry created their own problems by thinking the general population would eat their shit with a smile like their sycophants do. For a bunch of people that considered themselves smarter and better than the general populous, they don’t understand people very well.
- inigyou 1mo ago
  All your comments are just China China China China China. AI as envisioned by billionaires is pretty stupid. I think we'd be better off if we tricked China into building it.
  - bofadeez 1mo ago
    [flagged]
    - inigyou 1mo ago
      I see the China China China China China account is an alt of the Fable Fable Fable Fable Fable account.

chermi 1mo ago

I for one am not surprised.

lbriner 1mo ago

We see the same thing in the UK and probably lots of countries. Data Centres are large, expensive and secretive so most people will have all kinds of theories about why they are to be resisted at all costs. * Job attrition because "AI". * Blamed for high energy prices * A totem for high wealth individuals * A lot of building for not that many jobs * In small countries like the UK, some are a massive blot on the landscape compared to their surroundings Oh, but at the same time, we want everything to be cheaper. But not with AI. Or Data Centres.

rurp 1mo ago

The most surprising thing to me about the data center backlash is how surprised a lot of people in tech are about it. The public tradeoffs seem pretty terrible from the perspective of folks who aren't spending all day enamored with agentic coding loops, aka normal Americans. There have been a number of utility related scandals, with residential power bills doubling as data centers go in and water being illegally taken for their use. In the online arena most people are exposed to AI as social media slop and dumb chatbot features being crammed into every piece of software they use. Long term, the goal for this buildout is to drive millions of people out of their livelihood. But maybe a rogue AI will go nuts before then and become even more catastrophic. So people are looking around, seeing their physical space being worsened in order to make their digital lives worse, with the possibility of much more misery to come. No kidding they aren't a fan. It's interesting that the companies building these haven't even tried to smooth over the public relations until recently. I get it, this is all terribly exciting for VCs and a subset of techies, but their inability to even comprehend the objections shows what an extreme bubble they are in. The rest of the country gets a vote, and snidely dismissing everyone else as a knee jerk NIMBY, or Chinese shill, or illogical moron isn't going to convince anyone.

red-iron-pine 1mo ago
> Long term, the goal for this buildout is to drive millions of people out of their livelihood. Remember HN -- this applies to most of you, too

insane_dreamer 1mo ago

Datacenters haven't been a huge problem until now -- it's 1) what they're being used for (AI that clearly benefits the largest companies and threatens to decimate jobs while providing little tangible benefits for the average person so far), and 2) the rate at which large companies desire for them to be built and the consequent demands on water and electricity at a time when these resources are already under considerable strain (not to mention that we're supposed to be _reducing_ energy production to mitigate the effects of climate change)