Data centers become flashpoint in debate over AI growth
Data centers become flashpoint in debate over AI growth
Publish Date: 2026-06-12 13:45:00
Source Domain: foxbaltimore.com
Mounting resistance to the rapid expansion of data centers to power artificial intelligence is spreading into city halls and statehouses, posing a potential challenge for the industry to continue to scale up.
Tech companies have made plans to invest billions and started construction on sprawling facilities across the country to house the infrastructure to power AI applications and services. As AI models get more advanced and adoption becomes more widespread, tech companies need to ramp up processing power to handle the growing workload.
But the industry is running into intense voter pushback that is starting to turn into political issues ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott became the latest elected official to propose new restrictions on data centers, calling for water efficiency requirements and repealing tax incentives. He also asked the state’s utility regulators to “take immediate steps” to safeguard Texans from economic ramifications of the projects like higher energy bills.
“Data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods,” Abbott said in a statement.
Texas is approaching surpassing Virginia as having the most data centers in the U.S. and has welcomed the influx of tech investment into the state. Other states that have held up the centers as an economic boon have also started to backpedal with calls or plans to roll back tax breaks or other subsidies.
Backlash against data centers has spiraled into more than 100 proposed moratoriums at all levels of government across the U.S. calling for temporary pauses in permitting or construction, while some call for outright permanent bans. Dozens of cities and counties have already implemented temporary restrictions, though statewide proposals have generally struggled to advance.
At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,…
