Rural Data‑Center Backlash Grows

A Pew poll finds Americans are increasingly likely to view data centers as harmful to the environment, household energy bills, and neighborhood quality of life, with opposition rising across age, partisan, and community lines. That trend is especially salient because most new U.S. data centers are being sited in rural areas, where local permitting and political dynamics differ from urban debates. — Widespread, cross‑demographic opposition to data centers could produce new coalitions that slow permitting, reshape state policy, and force tradeoffs between digital infrastructure growth and local environmental/energy concerns.