Local community opposition to data centers is clear and growing

Rapid growth in computing and generative artificial intelligence is creating unprecedented demand for data center construction. Anecdotal media reports suggest residents often resist local governments approving data centers in their communities, citing concerns over issues like water consumption and expected increases in utility costs. However, studying the political reactions of communities across the United States to data centers remains difficult due to a lack of centralized data on local policymaking. We offer the first large-scale evidence of how U.S. communities discuss and respond to data center expansion by collecting and transcribing videos of local government meetings between 2007 and 2026. We show that the primary tension in local policymaking is between the economic development potential of data centers and expected local costs, such as noise, utility rate increases, and environmental impacts. We also find that residents are systematically less supportive of data centers than officials when discussing the same proposals.