Inside the fight over America’s data centers

Make no mistake: Americans hate data centers.

A recent poll from Gallup shows 70 percent of Americans oppose a data center in their local area, including 48 percent who are strongly opposed. That 70 percent number is tied to several concerns, environmental questions and quality of life chief among them, and it’s up 18 percent (!) in just two months, when Gallup asked the same question in March.

Nonetheless, data centers keep going up at a rate that is nothing short of astonishing.

According to one estimate, more than 4,000 data centers have already been built across the country. More than 2,000 that are currently under construction.

That alone shows just how quickly artificial intelligence, workforce automation, and the data centers that power these new technologies are becoming one of the can’t-miss issues in our current political landscape. And still, President Donald Trump and the White House have seemingly chosen to stand aside on AI regulation.

On the Democratic side, it’s an open question what comes next. Politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have called for a nationwide moratorium on data centers in order to institute more consumer protections. Others, like Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), are less definitive: He told me recently that artificial intelligence is a “necessary evil” of our modern age, and building data centers is part of that equation.

With all that uncertainty, producer Kasia Broussalian and I decided to sort through the mess ourselves. We headed to Vineland, a city in southern New Jersey where a new data center is under construction.

We talked to homeowners who live near the data center and a Democrat running on an AI reform platform, and went to a town hall to hear from community members who wanted to voice their concerns. One person brought up rising electricity bills, while another said the data center has made it impossible for her to sell her home. Many had a general anxiety about the global rise of AI.

However, the most universal complaint was not technically about artificial intelligence at all. It was about a political process that residents said did not include them. At the town hall, people said they were shocked by the data center’s initial construction, and want more transparency about relationships between elected officials and these big tech companies.

They also urged politicians to act proactively, rather than waiting for a crisis before imposing regulation. It wasn’t just that they didn’t like the data center itself: They were upset at how it seemed like a physical manifestation of whose interests are prioritized in politics.

Read on for what some of those town hall attendees had to say, lightly edited for length and clarity. As always, there’s much more in the full show, so listen to America, Actually wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel.

How many of you right now feel like you got information about the data center before the construction started?

No, nobody. Okay.

Can someone raise their hand and just tell me what their biggest concern was once they started hearing about it?

Angela Bardoe, Cumberland County, New Jersey, resident: Well, when I saw it, I thought it was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. So, that part of East Island is beautiful farmland — was beautiful farmland — but then of course I’ve thought about a lot of my friends that live out that way and how it was going to impact their everyday life.

Most people live there because they love the farmland.

Now I know about the structure, I know about kind of energy concerns. I wanted to ask about AI generally, like how many of you would say that your concerns about this data center are tied to larger concerns about AI and kind of some anxiety around that.

Fred Barsuglia, Clayton, New Jersey, resident: The internet brought us the best of the world and the worst in the world. AI is going to do the same thing. It’s already begun. I scroll through Facebook and there’s AI all over the place. Some of it’s cute little bunnies and cats, but a lot of the other stuff, you know, is bad.

Again, our government is very slow to react. There has to be some regulations.

Where would you now put this on your scale of issues?

There’s so much happening right now, whether it be war in Iran or tariffs or just generally. I wonder where data centers and this specific local reality maps onto your importance of issues.

Angela: I would say most of the topics fall into two categories. Is it benefiting people, or is it benefiting the elite and the money that’s going into their pockets? We see people trading before the war’s announced and they’re benefiting from it. And I just find it all very disgusting.

Louise Thigpen, Cumberland County resident: They’re gambling.

Angela: Yeah. I mean, they’re gambling insider information.

I hear what you’re saying.

On one hand there’s, there’s a kind of politics way of thinking about this in one bucket or another, but you’re like, it actually feels like in general, they’re not responding to you the regular person, and that’s across a lot of issues.

Angela: Well, yes. That’s how I see it.

Fred: I feel the same way. It’s because everything relates from the top down and what we’re getting from the top has spread all the way to the local level.

Louise: And it isn’t good.

Thank you all for entertaining our questions. It’s illuminating to hear the way these issues are connected for people. And I think just this general sentiment that folks feel unheard.

Louise: And we don’t feel that way. We are that way.