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BumRushDaShow

(163,781 posts)
Fri Nov 14, 2025, 11:37 AM Nov 14

Study shows state and local opposition to new data centers is gaining steam

Source: NBC News

Nov. 14, 2025, 5:00 AM EST


A new study found the total value of blocked or delayed data center projects during a three-month stretch earlier this year exceeded the total in the prior two years, signaling accelerating opposition to a foundational piece of artificial intelligence development in the U.S.

The study — conducted by Data Center Watch, a project of AI intelligence firm 10a Labs that tracks local data center activity — found that an estimated $98 billion in data center projects were blocked or delayed from late March through June. That compares to $64 billion worth of projects that were blocked or delayed between 2023 and late March 2025.

“Opposition to data centers is accelerating,” the authors wrote in the report, shared exclusively with NBC News. “As political resistance builds and local organizing becomes more coordinated, this is now a sustained and intensifying trend.”

Leaders in both parties are locked in competition to encourage tech giants to put sprawling data centers in their states, looking for an economic leg up and an innovation edge in the early days of the artificial intelligence boom. But resident backlash has intensified in recent months as the projects have contributed to rising electricity bills, among other concerns.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/state-local-opposition-new-data-centers-gaining-steam-rcna243838



Link to Data Center Watch REPORT - $64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local opposition
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Study shows state and local opposition to new data centers is gaining steam (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Nov 14 OP
no water, no electricity, noise, pollution.. ret5hd Nov 14 #1
What do they want with all of this data? Initech Nov 14 #2
As an aside re: insurance companies not fooled Nov 14 #3
Wow, that's insane! Initech Nov 14 #4
Yep, especially considering not fooled Nov 14 #6
Sound like something worthy BadgerKid Nov 14 #7
Loudoun County, VA resident here... LoCo Cat Lady Nov 14 #5

Initech

(106,978 posts)
2. What do they want with all of this data?
Fri Nov 14, 2025, 11:57 AM
Nov 14

Like you can target us with all of your bullshit ads but that's not going to make us buy your products. And the insurance companies already have enough of our money and their stupid ads run 24 hours a day.

not fooled

(6,545 posts)
3. As an aside re: insurance companies
Fri Nov 14, 2025, 12:48 PM
Nov 14

State Farm keeps sending renewal notices for a previous occupant of my house, who died well before I bought it a couple of years ago.

I have called both local offices and the national call line trying to get them to stop, but am told they do not check for customer deaths. Seems bizarre and an opportunity for fraud should someone continue paying the premiums. Also a cheap-out by State Farm--apparently it's cheaper to keep spamming my mailbox with a dead person's notices than to keep track of whether their customers are in fact alive.

not fooled

(6,545 posts)
6. Yep, especially considering
Fri Nov 14, 2025, 01:26 PM
Nov 14

we know they have massive databases on every aspect of our lives, to calculate risk. But, both the local agent and the call center guy answering the national line told me they have no way of knowing whether a customer has died, unless the family notifies them. I asked about e.g. county death records, whatever database Social Security uses to cut off payments lickety split, etc. Got a collective shrug from them.

I say BS but guess that they figure if it ever came to a claim under the dead person's name, they will check then to make sure the claimant isn't dead. Or something like that.

BadgerKid

(4,933 posts)
7. Sound like something worthy
Fri Nov 14, 2025, 03:07 PM
Nov 14

of reporting to state government. I receive health insurance renewal offers for my deceased mother.

LoCo Cat Lady

(87 posts)
5. Loudoun County, VA resident here...
Fri Nov 14, 2025, 12:50 PM
Nov 14

Last edited Fri Nov 14, 2025, 02:33 PM - Edit history (1)

data center capital of the world. Avoid them like the plague. They suck up hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day, have a constant noise, and scar the landscape. Take a look at some of the aerial views of data centers next to housing developments and read up on it. It's a freaking zoning disaster thanks to a Board of Supervisors who can't say "no" to the players like Chuck Kuhn.

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