When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn't initially know what to believe. 'There's a lot of misinformation about data centers,' she said. 'Google has denied taking that land.'

Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, 'and Google is just a big, unnamed power user.' The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood's watershed to meet municipal needs as its population grows. But critics, including environmentalists, say the city is trying to secure more water for Google, which has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that already consumes about one-third of the city's water supply.

This controversy made Reksopuro curious about the backlash to data centers being built in other communities. So Reksopuro, a student at the University of Washington who studies the connections between tech and public policy, decided to map it out. Using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, she built an interactive map tracking AI policy around the world. She designed it to be simple enough for anyone to use. 'I wanted it to be something that my younger sisters could play through and explore to understand what are the data centers in the area and what's actually being done about it,' Reksopuro said.

Using Claude, the map searches for new sources four times a day and checks them against the existing database Reksopuro built out. 'Once it does that, it will write a new summary, add it to the news feed, and populate it on the sidebar,' she said. 'I wanted it to be self-updating, since I'm also a student.'

Opposition to data centers is one of the few things that unites Americans across party lines. After the initial construction phase, data centers bring few permanent jobs and send 'power costs to records in much of the US,' reports Bloomberg. Though data centers are increasingly controversial, Reksopuro's map shows that the public response to them is nowhere near universal, nor are the policies governing their construction and use. While there's been a huge backlash to data centers in Maine — which in April passed the first state-level moratorium on hyperscale data centers, though it was later vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills — Texas 'is a huge fan of data centers,' Reksopuro said. 'Texas actually passed a tax exemption for data centers.' The state gives data centers more than $1 billion in tax breaks each year, the Texas Tribune reports.

Reksopuro isn't against data centers, but she thinks tech giants benefit from a lack of transparency around data center policies. 'Right now, it's this really opaque thing — and all of a sudden, there's a facility,' she said. 'I think that if people knew about data centers beforehand, it would give them leverage. They would be able to negotiate: ask for job training programs, tax revenue, environmental monitoring, things to improve their community.'

The explosive growth of data centers is driven by the rise of artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Every time you ask a chatbot a question or stream a video, your request is processed in a data center somewhere. These facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, both for running servers and for cooling them. In the United States, data centers are projected to use 9% of the nation's electricity by 2030, up from about 1% today, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. That's equivalent to the output of dozens of large power plants.

Water usage is another flashpoint. A typical hyperscale data center can consume millions of gallons of water per day, often in drought-prone areas. In The Dalles, Google's data center uses water for evaporative cooling, drawing from the city's municipal supply. Residents worry that if Google expands, there won't be enough water for homes and farms. Similar conflicts have erupted in Arizona, where data centers are competing with agriculture for scarce water resources, and in Chile, where Google's data center plans have been challenged by indigenous communities.

The environmental impact extends beyond water and energy. Data centers require vast amounts of concrete and steel, contributing to carbon emissions during construction. Their backup diesel generators emit pollutants and contribute to local air quality problems. E-waste from outdated servers is a growing concern, as data center operators upgrade equipment every few years to keep pace with computing demands.

Legislative responses have been mixed. In addition to Maine's attempted moratorium, states like New York and Virginia have considered bills to impose stricter environmental reviews for data centers. Virginia, home to the world's largest concentration of data centers in Loudoun County, is debating whether to require data centers to disclose their energy sources and water consumption. At the federal level, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has begun studying the grid impacts of data center growth.

On the other hand, states like Texas, Ohio, and Georgia have actively courted data centers with tax incentives and streamlined permitting. These states argue that data centers bring construction jobs, increased tax base, and economic development to rural areas. However, critics point out that many of these jobs are temporary, and that the long-term benefits often fail to materialize for local communities.

The map created by Reksopuro is one of the first tools to aggregate data center policies and public reactions in a user-friendly format. It allows users to click on their state or country to see what data centers are operating, under construction, or planned, along with relevant news articles and legislative updates. The map shows hotspots of opposition in the Pacific Northwest, New England, and parts of Europe, while the American South and Southwest remain largely welcoming.

Reksopuro's project has drawn attention from policymakers and journalists. She hopes it will empower citizens to ask questions and hold tech companies accountable. 'I want people to feel like they have a say in what gets built in their community,' she said. 'You don't have to be a tech expert to understand what's happening.'

The data center industry, meanwhile, is pushing back against what it sees as misinformation. Trade groups like the Data Center Coalition argue that data centers are essential for modern life, that they bring economic benefits, and that they are investing heavily in renewable energy and water efficiency. They point to efforts by companies like Google and Microsoft to power data centers with carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030. But environmental groups counter that these pledges are voluntary and often fall short of the rapid emissions reductions needed to combat climate change.

The debate over data centers is likely to intensify as AI models grow larger and demand more computing power. The training of a single large language model can emit as much carbon as five cars over their lifetimes. As more companies deploy AI, the number of data centers will continue to multiply. The question is whether communities will have a say in where they go and how they operate.

For now, Reksopuro's map provides a starting point for anyone curious about the data center landscape. It reveals a complex patchwork of policies, public opinions, and corporate strategies. Knowledge, she believes, is the first step toward meaningful change.

Source: The Verge News