Local pushback grows against AI data centers

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Our public health is not for sale. [00:00:05] Speaker 2: Across the U.S., a frenzy of development to support the artificial intelligence boom prompts pushback from communities who say they don't want data centers in their backyards. In Michigan, residents today gathered outside the state capitol to protest a string of recent data center proposals. Residents and politicians have also pushed back against projects in Arizona, Missouri, Indiana, and more. So let's bring in Jacob Ward, a technology journalist and host of the RipCurrent podcast and author of The Loop, How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back. Jacob, always so good to see you. Great to be here. All right. How quickly are these data centers popping up across the United States and with so much investment going into artificial intelligence? Is that only going to ramp up? [00:00:50] Speaker 3: It absolutely is. I mean, right, if you think about it, right, even a few years ago, you and I tossing the words data centers around, we wouldn't know what we were talking about, right? As of last year, the data center industry accounted for about 4.5% of the total electricity use in the United States, according to the Department of Energy. Wow. In a few years, by 2028, that number is supposed to jump to as much as 12%, right? So we're seeing it double each year, perhaps get bigger than that. And, of course, the issue isn't just the incredible, you know, Costco-sized footprint of these places. It is, of course, the effect that they have on the broader community here. [00:01:26] Speaker 2: Absolutely. And in today's rally in Michigan, environmental advocates outlined some of their concerns about the data center proposals in that state. One demonstrator warned of impacts to the town's energy and water resources. Take a listen. [00:01:40] Speaker 1: We are concerned for our public health. We are concerned for the health of our local environment, our natural resources, sustainable energy future. We are concerned that there are individuals in our community that will not have the ability to keep their lights on or to have access to clean and affordable water. [00:01:57] Speaker 2: So how do these data centers really impact the communities where they're built? I mean, presumably, they could create jobs, but they also take up a lot of space and use a lot of power. So what does that mean for the folks that are living next door to these things? [00:02:10] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, think about it this way, right? Imagine a factory, a steel mill that employs only a tiny handful of people, right? These are basically big zombie buildings. There's nothing going on inside except for the computing. And they're always on. The staff never goes home, right? The work never ends. And electricity in this country, as it is everywhere, is built to meet peak demand. And when you have an always on, the equivalent of like a steel mill or some huge factory, always suddenly on, that raises not just the prices of electricity for everybody around, but it sucks up huge amounts of water. Your data centers are pulling something like five million gallons a day, right? So we're talking about, that's like, you know, a town of like 100,000 people. And this is water that is, in many cases, being evaporated to cool these data centers. So you're not going to get anything back. It's not running through and being collected again. It is gone to evaporation. And so it is driving up the cost of electricity for all of these folks, in some cases, you know, by hundreds of dollars a month. And then in other cases, it is also, you know, just actually taking away the physical supply of water as these data centers tap into the municipal supply. [00:03:19] Speaker 2: That's really interesting talking about water, because initially when you said that, I thought, oh, that must be used to help power the data centers. No, that's just to just keep them from catching on fire. Just there you go. And that's a huge job. [00:03:31] Speaker 3: That's right. [00:03:31] Speaker 2: The House today voted to advance what's known as the Speed Act, which is legislation to speed up the permitting process for AI infrastructure projects like these data centers. What are the arguments for and against this bill? [00:03:43] Speaker 3: Well, certainly the idea behind this bill is they want to speed up the approval process. Right now, if you're going to put in a data center, you have to look at not just the effects of that one building, but how it will drive up the other kinds of, you know, grid construction you'll have to do to create enough energy for this thing to go. And what will the environmental effects be of the, you know, new power plant you'll have to bring online to serve the thing? Well, this act would reduce what you're allowed to look at in whether or not you're going to approve this thing to really just talk about the building itself. You're not allowed to look at these other wider effects. So that would move things along. Of course, the industry is very into that because they would like the infrastructure to happen. But it's interesting that at the same time that we're talking about this, also today, three Democratic senators opened an investigation into how electricity costs are going up for all these folks in places like where we saw these protests. And so I think very much on, you know, in Washington, there's about to be an incredible amount of political wrangling over this issue. Do we take the side of the industry that wants things to move faster, maybe even bring nuclear power back online in this country? Or do we want to actually look at the total effect of this stuff, which researchers are beginning to show us, is much bigger than we ever expected? [00:04:52] Speaker 2: But clearly, administration is going to favor the bigger companies because they want to see us win the AI race. [00:04:58] Speaker 3: That is right. I mean, in the president's recent executive order, he talked about, you know, wanting supremacy, dominance, and, you know, our adversaries around the world. Good to remember that voters don't care about this at all. 80% of voters, according to a Gallup poll, would like AI to be regulated, and they don't care if we fall behind. [00:05:14] Speaker ?: All right. [00:05:15] Speaker 2: Jacob Ward, so good to see you. Appreciate it. Thanks so much for coming on.