New York Governor Kathy Hochul just signed the nation’s first statewide ban on large-scale data centers — a one-year moratorium that hands Communist China a massive advantage in the AI race.
And she’s not alone. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is calling for rural bans. The panic is spreading.
The left’s new target isn’t fossil fuels or pipelines this time. It’s the infrastructure that powers American technological dominance.
China just drafted a five-year plan to invest $295 billion into AI buildout while Democrats slam the brakes on ours.
Polls show 70% of Americans oppose new data centers in their area, with 48% strongly opposed. Only 27% favor them, according to Gallup.
The campaign against data centers mirrors the anti-fracking hysteria — same junk science, same scaremongering, same result: economic suicide.
The economic case for data centers is indisputable.
A single hyperscale facility brings billions in capital investment, creates high-paying jobs from construction to engineering, and floods local governments with tax revenue.
In Loudoun County, Virginia — home to the largest concentration of data centers in the country — tech tax revenue accounts for 95% of the county’s operating budget. One study found homeowners would need to make up $5,800 a year in property taxes if the data centers disappeared.
That revenue funded a $100 million plan for new schools in the county of 455,000 residents.
Because energy price spikes have coincided with the data center debate, opponents claim utility bills will skyrocket.
The data says otherwise.
A City Journal investigation found the sharpest electricity rate increases are in states with the most aggressive climate policies — not those with the most data centers. California has few data centers and fast-growing rates. Virginia leads the country in data center energy consumption and has seen prices increase at the national average.
There’s considerable evidence data centers have actually eased electricity rate hikes over the past decade as companies took on a growing share of utility costs.
The solution to high energy demand isn’t fewer data centers. It’s more energy generation.
The environmental attacks don’t hold water either.
WNBA player Sophie Cunningham asked on X: “So how do we save our farm land and stop all these dumb data centers?”
Save farmland? Data centers are predicted to use around 1,400 square miles of land by 2028. Farmland already uses around 880 million acres. There’s more than enough land for both.
If anything, data centers might save farming communities. A large data center project in rural Prince Edward County, Virginia, will bring a $5 billion investment into that community.
Data centers consume somewhere around 2% to 4% of total freshwater withdrawals — a tiny fraction compared to agriculture, manufacturing, or mining. Nationally, data centers consume significantly less water than golf courses.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez produced two jars with brown water at a congressional hearing, alleging that was “drinking water” near a Meta data center in Georgia.
Earlier reports found only four households in the county had sediment-clogged taps. Brown drinking water was not widespread, as Ocasio-Cortez claimed.
Construction projects that burst wells on occasion aren’t unique to data centers. In a major solar project in upstate New York, crews accidentally struck an aquifer while drilling. Does Ocasio-Cortez believe we should ban solar panel projects?
If you care about the environment, data centers facilitate considerable efficiencies elsewhere — remote work that reduces commuting emissions, better supply chain organization that cuts waste, and cloud computing that’s far more efficient than everyone running their own servers.
The data center debate is about whether we want to remain the technological leader or cede to adversaries like China.
Beijing just drafted a five-year plan to invest roughly $295 billion into an AI buildup while Democrats block American infrastructure.
NIMBYism is part of the opposition. If a local community doesn’t want a new data center nearby, they should be able to stop the project. But if a local community wants a data center, governors and Congress shouldn’t stop them from bringing in jobs and tax revenue.
The voices against data centers are the same activists who’ve spread environmental apocalypticism to stop pipelines, power plants, and fracking.
Most of their arguments don’t hold water. That doesn’t mean they’re not winning.
so how do we save our farm land and stop all these dumb data centers?
— Sophie Cunningham (@sophaller) July 16, 2026
