Most Americans do not want to live near data centers and are concerned that they are bad for the environment and will be a drain on local resources, according to a new poll.
The survey, conducted by CBS News/YouGov, found that 50 percent of respondents said they did not want to live near a data center. Only 20 percent said they would favor living near one, and the remaining 30 percent of respondents were unsure.
Most said they were worried about the potential impact on local resources such as water and electricity, with 63 percent of respondents saying the impact would be mostly bad. There were also concerns about the environment generally, with 60 percent worried that data centers were mostly harmful.
Respondents also said that they lacked information about data centers. Only 16 percent said they knew a lot about them, with 57 percent saying they knew a little and 27 percent saying they new nothing.
Data centers are most closely associated with the necessary infrastructure for developing AI; however, they are also used for other functions by big tech companies.
The centers require a significant amount of energy to operate and also use fresh water to cool systems. How much can depend on the data center and how it is designed. For example, NVIDIA recently announced that it had developed an entirely closed-loop liquid cooling system that the company says will greatly reduce water usage.
"The NVIDIA DSX reference design for AI factories has zero water consumption — we have eliminated massive amounts of power usage and pretty much all water usage," said Ali Heydari, director of data center cooling and infrastructure at NVIDIA. "With dry-cooler-based designs, it's a closed-loop system with no evaporative water cooling — outside of maybe 1% of the year when we might need chillers in some climates."
However, data center design and cooling systems vary greatly, and there are no set standards related to water or energy usage.
Congress is considering various pieces of legislation meant to address data center concerns. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's energy subcommittee was scheduled to debate and vote on the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require state utilities to consider adopting a "large load standard" under which data center developers would pay for upgrades needed to serve their facilities, CNBC reported.
Pressure for Congress to act has mounted as local opposition has increasingly become an obstacle to data center projects around the country. Opposition to data centers helped block projects worth an estimated $130 billion in the first quarter of the year, accordig NBC News.
The opposition to data centers has "consolidated into a national political force," Data Center Watch stated, adding that the second half of 2025 marked a turning point as data center opposition shifted. "What began as individual zoning disputes is now reshaping elections, regulation, and site viability nationwide," Data Center Watch stated.
