Anti-data-center propaganda has misled Americans so profoundly that, per new Heatmap Pro polling, they are now more likely to support a coal power plant being built near them than an AI data center, which is literally just a warehouse full of computers. 

“It’s worth stepping back and thinking of how remarkable this is,” Heatmap concludes. “The American public … is more skeptical of data centers which, once built, are essentially warehouses than they are of gas-fired power plants which emit, besides the greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. They oppose data centers more than they do wind farms with their towering turbines and mechanical hums; more than they do battery storage facilities which can erupt into super-hot fires; or even nuclear power plants, long the go-to reference for ‘scary energy facility.’”

This is nothing short of insane. While there are legitimate environmental concerns involving any large-scale industrial infrastructure project, and data centers are no exception, only someone hopelessly misinformed could possibly favor a coal power plant moving into their neighborhood over a data center. What’s more, this widespread ignorance isn’t just coming from Luddite progressives — it’s a bipartisan affliction. 

As Heatmap’s polling shows, support has plummeted over the past year among both Republicans and Democrats.

Why?

Well, among the top concerns listed by Americans opposed to data construction near them are the same concerns breathlessly recited in alarmist media coverage and in endless, factually challenged social media slop: water usage, impact on electricity prices, and other environmental concerns. 

There’s just one glaring problem: These concerns are all warped beyond belief.

While data centers use water, like almost any infrastructure project, the scale of such concerns is out of whack with numerical reality. As analyst Andy Masley has extensively documented and explained, data centers have been around for decades and use only a tiny fraction of the water used by other, far less crucial sectors such as golf courses. And, even with the coming expansion of data centers to enable AI development, this still isn’t a real issue.

“The water all American data centers will consume onsite in 2030 is equivalent to: 8% of the water currently consumed by the U.S. golf industry,” Masley writes. 

As far as data centers raising electricity prices because they use such huge amounts of power, this concern makes theoretical sense. But, in practice, due to the way regulated utilities function and the enormous grid upgrades data center projects have financed, research shows they actually lead to small declines in electricity prices. 

Meanwhile, the tremendous economic benefits of data centers are going entirely overlooked. 

The New York Times recently profiled how the centers have benefited the aforementioned Loudoun County, writing that: 

“Over the past two years, Virginia’s Loudoun County unveiled a sleek $102 million recreation center with multiple pools and hydro massage chairs. It spent $22 million to convert the estate of former President James Monroe into a park. And it opened two new schools, with another under construction.

While many communities are in fiscal crisis, Loudoun is flush. The source of its riches: data centers.

A tax on computer equipment inside the data centers is expected to generate about $1.3 billion in revenue next year, or 40 percent of the county’s total tax revenue. That has allowed the county to cut property taxes for residents — who have the highest median income in the country — by about 30 percent over the past decade.”

But even the New York Times recounting this success story had to somehow spin it into a negative, ultimately framing the story around whether the county has “become too dependent on that cash.” 

Seriously? 

CANADA WILL WIN THIS TRADE WAR

With such warped, technophobic media coverage and so much misinformation running rampant on social media, it’s ultimately not that surprising that Americans have fallen for the AI data center propaganda. But with politicians in both parties now hopping on the bandwagon and supporting foolish bans on data center construction — while China cheers — we may one day look back on this moment as one in which we allowed propaganda to blind us so much that we ended up shooting ourselves in the foot.

Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.