It’s certainly not manifesting in measurable consequences for the politicians who support the projects.
‘No one can accuse New York of fearing innovation,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at the ceremony in which she signed the nation’s first-ever statewide moratorium on data center construction. “But that said . . . for a lot of [Americans], the specter of unchecked AI brings up fear, anxiety, a lot of worry.”
A policymaker should probably check whether those fears are valid before catering to them. Fortunately, most of the more salacious claims are not.
Data centers do consume water, but they do not arrest the hydrologic cycle or permanently alter its chemical composition, as a cavalcade of unscrupulous TikTok tweens has claimed. Nor are data centers primarily responsible for a sustained increase in the cost of local utilities, such as electricity. “If anything, data centers have placed modest downward pressure on retail rates,” the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal recently contended. Indeed, one study found “that doubling a state’s data-center capacity caused residential rates to fall about 3.5 percent.”
The Texas Tribune recently warned that the state’s data center projects have the “potential to emit more annual greenhouse gases than most countries do.” Indeed, they could if their diesel-powered backup generators ran continuously, rather than only during emergencies and maintenance periods. Those generators also account for the threat of data center–related noise pollution, which Hochul herself warned “is going to be incredible.” It won’t be.
If Hochul isn’t afraid of innovation, she must be scared of something. Most likely, what has spooked her are the polls that consistently expose Americans’ apprehension over the development of data centers as a proxy for their trepidation toward artificial intelligence. Some left-wing outlets even contend that the Democrats who have failed to pander to this sentiment are putting the Democratic Party’s midterm election prospects at risk. Fearing the backlash, Hochul opted to get ahead of it.
Hochul isn’t the only Democratic executive to reach that conclusion, nor are her concerns exclusive to the Democratic Party. Donald Trump is pushing Republican governors to sign a pledge outlining “a set of principles committing data center developers to pay for their fair share of energy and water use, along with electric grid improvements and maintenance,” Politico reported Tuesday. And some Republicans, such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have called for similar restrictions on data center construction in rural communities.
If all this activity is predicated on the notion that the politicians who support America’s data center buildout will regret it when voters head to the polls, we should see voters’ distaste for it correspond with growing mistrust of the politicians who facilitate the centers’ development. So far, we haven’t seen that.
Let’s return to Texas, which is home to hundreds of operational data centers, with almost 250 related projects in the works across the state. Texans, too, are suspicious of this phenomenon. Just 29 percent of respondents to one recent poll supported “the construction of a data center” in their community. Fifty-six percent were opposed, including 42 percent who said they “strongly opposed” that sort of development. But the same survey also found that Abbott’s job approval rating is well above water, and he leads his Democratic opponent in this year’s governor’s race by seven points.
What about Georgia? Of the 1,000 Georgians surveyed in March (the most recent poll on data center development), 47 percent opposed the development of data centers in or near their communities. Just 31 percent disagreed. But the Peach State has proceeded with its plan to add over 120 new data centers to the 34 that presently operate in the state, and those projects have been controversial. And yet, when last measured, Governor Brian Kemp’s job approval rating hovers between 46 and 61 percent (with disapproval ratings at or near 30 percent).
But what about Democrat-led states like Hochul’s? Well, despite presiding over a state with almost 140 data centers in operation, with another 123 on the way, Governor JB Pritzker doesn’t seem to have to worry about an imminent backlash. Back in April, a majority of Illinois residents told pollsters that they “oppose allowing data centers to be built at all.” They didn’t get their wish, but there’s no sign those voters have turned on Pritzker.
Even in purple states, where the political class should, in theory, be more sensitive to shifting attitudes within the electorate, there is no apparent link between voters’ attitudes toward data centers and the politicians who approve their construction. Pennsylvania, for example, is experiencing a “modern-day gold rush” amid its “data center boom.” Back in December, one pollster found that 42 percent of Keystone State residents oppose the construction of data centers in their communities. Only 34 percent wouldn’t mind. And yet, that poll also found that Pennsylvania voters approve of Governor Josh Shapiro’s performance in office by a two-to-one margin, including over three-quarters of self-described Democrats.
If the data center backlash is real, it’s not manifesting in measurable consequences for the politicians who support them.
The public’s mistrust of AI and the infrastructure that fuels it might be real and broadly shared, but the subject is low salience. This wouldn’t be the first time that the internet latched onto a hot-button issue — overestimating its relevance and capturing the attention of the political class in the process — only for the universe of general election voters to recenter the national conversation.
Perhaps there’s something the polls are missing and the public is champing at the bit to punish data center–friendly politicians. Or maybe what we’re witnessing is another exhibition of Kathy Hochul’s reliably unimpressive political instincts. Time will tell. But, so far, the evidence points in one direction.