AI data centers are straining power and water — and voters are fighting back
Giant AI data centers are driving up local electricity and water costs, and a bipartisan backlash — plus new questions about political favoritism — is reshaping how they get built.
What happened: Across the US, plans for giant AI data centers are colliding with local power grids, water systems, and voters. In Little Rock, Arkansas, two huge projects — a $1bn Google site and a $6bn Avaio site — sparked bipartisan anger over electricity rates, water use, and land in a mostly Black, working-class county. In Florida's Hernando County, a yearlong moratorium passed after protests led by a conservative grassroots group. Separately, SoftBank disclosed it donated $50 million to Trump's presidential library in January — two months before the administration approved SoftBank leasing federal land in Ohio, where it plans a data center paired with a 9.2-gigawatt gas plant.
Why it matters: These facilities need enormous, steady electricity and often water for cooling, and some of that cost lands on ordinary ratepayers. Little Rock's mayor says residents fear rate hikes and water shortages for little payoff — Avaio itself projects just 70 permanent jobs from a site using power equal to 100,000 homes and 4 million gallons of water daily. Meanwhile, the SoftBank library donation raises the question of whether access to cheap federal land and power is decided by political relationships rather than open competition, feeding public distrust of how these deals actually get made.
How it works, plainly: Running AI models requires racks of power-hungry chips needing constant cooling, so developers chase cheap electricity and land — often in the South and Midwest, where industrial power can cost 5-7 cents per kWh versus a national average near 8.7 cents. A 2023 Arkansas law, originally aimed at crypto mining, now bars cities from outright banning data centers, leaving opponents only able to regulate noise, water use, and setbacks. To meet the power demand, companies are increasingly funding new gas plants, like SoftBank's 9.2GW facility in Ohio, adding fossil-fuel capacity even as AI is marketed as forward-looking.
The pushback so far: Little Rock passed an ordinance in June limiting noise, heat, and water use and barring hyperscale centers from residential areas, though critics on both sides call it either too weak or too strict. Pulaski county rejected a moratorium after a carve-out for Avaio was drafted with input from utility Entergy. In Florida, backlash is shaking up the governor's race. And in Washington, senators Warren and Blumenthal, plus Rep. Stansbury, are now probing SoftBank's library donation for possible bribery concerns; SoftBank says the timing was coincidental.