{"id":13712,"date":"2026-07-22T16:30:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13712"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:30:45","slug":"community-backlash-to-ai-data-centers-is-growing-across-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13712","title":{"rendered":"Community Backlash to AI Data Centers Is Growing Across the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">The Georgia town is not alone. If there\u2019s one thing most Americans across the country agree on, it\u2019s that they hate data centers. A June <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/americans-wary-ai-driven-data-center-boom-reutersipsos-poll-shows-2026-06-11\/\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\"><em>Reuters<\/em><\/a> poll found that just a third of Americans approve of the pace of data-center construction, and only 14% are comfortable with a data center being built nearby. On July 18, a national <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/retail-consumer\/us-data-center-protests-go-national-backlash-grows-2026-07-18\/\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">day of protest<\/a> against data centers saw 142 protests across 42 states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">According to one count by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/300-plus-bans-moratoriums-threatening-u-s-data-center-boom\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\"><em>The Information<\/em><\/a>, more than 300 cities, towns, and counties\u2014including Monterey Park, Calif., Dekalb County, Ga., and Jefferson County, Pa.\u2014have placed bans or moratoriums on the construction of hyperscale data centers. In the first three months of 2026, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlanticcouncil.org\/blogs\/energysource\/backlash-against-data-centers-could-cost-the-us-its-ai-edge\/\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">75<\/a> major projects worth more than $130 billion were delayed or canceled in part due to organized local opposition. And on July 14, New York governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order to create the nation&#8217;s first moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, while several other states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and South Carolina are considering similar pauses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Georgia town is not alone. If there\u2019s one thing most Americans across the country agree on, it\u2019s that they hate data centers. A June Reuters poll found that just a third of Americans approve of the pace of data-center construction, and only 14% are comfortable with a data center being built nearby. On July&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/bltd59f5f2735211d08\/6a5fbf314e69cf4a32812f71\/data-center-backlash.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}