Everyone hates data centers

On Truth Social, there is no shortage of President Trump lashing out at things.

At Iran, at Communism, at Hollywood, at Governor Kathy Hoko, that's all in the last day or so.

Two days ago, the President did something he doesn't often do.

He lashed out at Americans.

The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.

If they want to be successful and rich, the far lower taxes and jobs all over the place let data rain.

The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them.

If we kill the golden goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.

The thing is, Trump seems out of the loop on this one.

Americans are a leery of data centers and increasingly so are the people that Americans elect.

A growing number of politicians, both Republican and Democrat, are loudly pulling back on their support for data centers in their communities.

That's coming up on today's explain from Vox.

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This is a day.

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Today's flame.

This is a day's flame.

Paul Cobbler is the Texas Tribune's economy and industry reporter.

So, Paul, even a year ago, Governor Greg Abbott was very, very bullish on data centers in Texas.

What was he saying at the time?

Governor Greg Abbott declared Texas the epicenter of the data center boom in the United States.

More so than any other country in the entire world,

Texas will be the centerpiece for AI data centers for Google in the entire world.

You know, really, really was kind of full-throated in the support of this build out of all this

investment we were seeing.

Texas was the number two market in the country for data centers at the time.

I think we're now the number one market.

We have more planned and we're being constructed than any other state.

It was kind of full-bore, I'd say, and has been for much of this year.

Your local McDonald's is going to be using it to better enable their business to function.

Your local stores, your local grocery stores, your local H.E.B. and things like that

are all going to be operating better because of AI generated right here in Mid-Lothian, Texas.

There's also a lot of talk that this will create jobs.

It certainly is creating construction and like electrician plumber jobs right now,

but there's a lot of question on how permanent those jobs are.

And then on the other side, just sort of being like a centerpiece of US national security that

comes up a lot from GOP and from the governor, but from GOP sort of state officials.

They see this as sort of we are supporting the United States and this race against China as well.

We need to do better. China's going to win this war share.

Now we're going to race with China on that AI race and if they're able to leapfrog us

in that race is a very dangerous thing for everybody around the country.

All right, so the governor is in favor and then some data centers are built.

Yeah, where did you guys see him being built?

It really is everywhere.

But sort of a newer trend with these really, really big ones that we're seeing being planned

is that a lot of them are out west.

They're out in unincorporated parts of counties that don't have any sort of city government

jurisdiction over them because in the state of Texas are counties.

If it's in an unincorporated area, they have no zoning ability.

So developers see that as like a very positive thing that they don't have to get any sort of

approval to be able to build ahead of time like the way they would in a city.

So we've done like an analysis of I think it's 240 plant data centers.

Yeah, and those are planned for unincorporated areas of counties.

Okay, so this is interesting.

You're not talking about one or two or even ten.

You're talking about dozens and hundreds.

What goes on in Texas when somebody puts up a data center in a community?

You said these are more rural areas.

Are you seeing protests? Are you seeing pushback?

What's been going on so far?

Yeah, it's been really fascinating to watch this kind of build over the course of I'd say about

a year. I mean, this was something we were sort of seeing minor grassroots resistance to

about a year ago. They all packed the courtroom wearing their no data center stickers.

We already have Samsung down the street, which is a huge undertaking,

and I think the residents just want room for their kids to learn and play and grow safely.

They only have interest in increasing their pockets and in causing themselves to be elevated.

But what it will do to the actual people through this community, I don't think they really care.

And they've gotten a lot more organized. I mean, they talk to each other now.

They go to protests at the state capital together.

Then you really see it at a lot of these local city council and county commission meetings,

where we have just seen countless examples of meetings that are packed with hours and hours

of testimony, hundreds of people there in counties that are not very populist at all.

And probably typically don't see county commission meetings that have that many people at them.

Are so Texas wanted to be in the data center business?

Was it doing anything to incentivize the building of data centers there?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, this was a really interesting thing that I published a story on in April.

And this is not, I think, uncommon to a lot of other states in the country,

but we had a state sales tax exemption.

I think the easiest way to explain what is exempt is like if you tip the data center upside down,

it's sort of everything that falls out that contributes to the operation of the data center.

So servers, server racks, but the big one, and this is really the sticking point,

I think, for a lot of state officials and for the public too, is that electricity is exempt

under the state sales tax. And I mean, I'm sure you've heard about these hyper scalers that are,

you know, one gigawatt incapacity, which is, you know, the amount of electricity that 750,000

homes use on average. All right. So the reason we're talking today is that

Governor Greg Abbott has changed his mind on data centers. What is Greg Abbott saying today?

You know, I wouldn't consider it a wholesale mind change. I mean, it certainly is like,

they're the governor and a lot of these Republican officials that are supportive of sort of the

overall data center buildup for those reasons we mentioned in as far as job growth, economic

development. You know, they are also very aware of the politics of this under trying to take steps

to show they are ordering responsible development. They've not been working in collaboration with

local governments. And so they basically dug their own grave for the problem that's been

caused for them. And that's why they got the backlash. They deserve. They are requiring data centers

to pay their own way in power so that like costs of those don't go on to residential weight

ratepayers that they provide their own water and are using water from, you know, the wells or

the aquifers that might be running low in a state that's pretty strict and with drought a lot of the

time. What we have to do right now is put standards and practices in for data centers,

just like we did with Orrick. He's saying all of these things, but also saying, you know,

this is a very valuable industry for the state of Texas and we do not want to leave it behind.

How are the companies behind the data centers responding to the governors? Let's say increased

hesitance about their value to his state. Are they upset? No, I think you might be surprised to hear

that they've been incredibly supportive and the governor has been very happy to let us all know

about that. It was August 3rd that he issued this most recent letter ordering an audit of all of

the data centers that are in this interconnection queue before any can be approved to be on the

power grid. And basically that is just ensuring that they will pay their own way in power, that they

have water supply that we know who the operator is that we have an accounting of all of the local

and state tax incentives this data center might have ever since that August 3rd letter was sent out.

We have just seen a wave after wave of data center companies, developers coming out and saying

they're supportive of it. Governor Greg Abbott today announced that Microsoft, Hut 8 and Equinix,

Stack Infrastructure and Theropic and Night Peak Energy, Amazon, Lansium and Cypher Digital will

comply with the standards and guidelines he established for data centers. It's really the governor

and the industry are kind of in lockstep on this. They see this as a good and responsible path forward.

Governor Abbott is up for reelection in November. How much of his updated, let's say, attitude

on data centers comes down to politics, comes down to voters seem like maybe they're getting

squeamish about this. Well, yes, I mean he hasn't said it explicitly that it is tied to the election,

but I think you certainly can draw your own conclusions based on a lot of things here. I mean,

the polling in the races in Texas, they're really the big ones are governor's race where Governor

Abbott, like you said, is up for reelection against state representative Gina Hinoosa and then our

US Senate race where Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing off against state representative James

Taloriko. In both of these races, the polling for a state where a Democrat is not one statewide and

more than 30 years is incredibly close. Polling in the state has shown the data center build out to

be very unpopular, more than 60% of people against having a data center built in their own community.

The rural conservative is the Republican base in the state of Texas. I mean, it's a group that

Republicans typically win with more than 75% of the vote. We have seen polling that shows that those

folks are dissatisfied. All of that to say the governor has not said I am doing this because of the

election, but what I will say is the pause on data center approvals is expected to last through

November. Does this reason to be one of the top issues in this election? Do you think? I would say

it is the candidates are kind of making that own case on their own and in the US Senate race,

both state representative Taloriko and Attorney General Paxton have recently released their own

plans on what they'll do about the data center build out. I mean, obviously they're running for

federal office, so from their perch in the US Senate, if they're able to win that seat.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released his data center plan just yesterday, and in a news

release, A.G. says he would ban Chinese technology from US data centers and hold companies criminally

liable if their data centers power AI chatbots that endanger children. We need a senator who's going to

fight for all Texans, not just billionaire mega donors, and it's why I'm here listening to the folks

in Abelene. It's why we're traveling the state listening to Texans, and it's why we've rolled out

a comprehensive plan to rein in these data center companies. But then same with state representative

Hanna Hosa, the Democrat running for governor, and then obviously Abbott and his recent actions be

in taken. I think there are dual pressures going on here, and so we're seeing candidates talk

about it. We're seeing advertisements pop up about it. We're hearing voters on the street talk

about it. I mean, I think it's getting... Yeah, it's up there. I think maybe the easiest way to say

that is it's near the top. Paul Cobbler is the Texas Tribune's economy and industry reporter coming

up the data center backlash goes national. Hey, what's up guys? It's Babish, and on this week's

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Data. What? My name. It is pronounced today explained.

I'm Noel King. Jeremy Merrill is a data reporter at the Washington Post. Jeremy

analyzed thousands of social media posts and newsletters to see what elected officials on both

sides of the aisle are saying about data centers. And he found that earlier this year,

a lot of them started changing their minds on the issue.

Data centers didn't use to be a big deal. And now almost all of a sudden, they're a big issue.

Candidates are sort of falling over themselves to sound tough about data centers.

And data centers are kind of overwhelmingly portrayed as a problem, rather than an opportunity

to your benefit. A great example of Senator John Houston, who's a Republican senator from Ohio,

who's up for election this November. I am an Ohio guy with Ohio values and I will fight for those

values in Washington DC. He used to praise data center projects that were coming to Ohio when he

was Lieutenant Governor. Because it would help establish Ohio as, quote, an important tech hub in

America. And he said that data centers are essential to our digital lives. If we want to have

economic dominance and national security dominance, we need to have technological dominance.

And AI and data centers are a big piece of that. And I know that the American people want to win.

And now he's saying he's trying to quote, protect Americans from having to foot the bill for data

centers. What I have taken the position of is that any data center that's built should be first

a local decision. If the local community wants it, then they can negotiate with the data center

on the terms. He's really emblematic of a shift that happened all across the Republican party

in about February of this year. That's when the bulk of messages from Republicans about data centers

flipped from focusing on them as bringing benefits to their states and communities to talking about

their downsides. This is really a case of the the anger and unhappiness bubbling up from

from everyday people up to political elites. And that grassroots anger was all across the political

spectrum over a whole range of issues. Power bells claims about how much water data centers may use,

air pollution, eminent domain, taxes, subsidies. And, you know, according to some people,

sort of generalize day anxiety, sort of physical manifestation of general anxiety that people

feel about what AI is going to do to our society, to our brains, to our kids, and to our jobs.

Okay, so we know that it's not just one single candidate, maybe even not just a handful,

because you reported that the National Republican Centennial Committee warned that quote,

data centers are the anchor hanging around Hugh Stead's neck. That is pretty, that is pretty

strong language. Is the National Republican Centennial Committee admitting that the wrong

position on data centers is enough to lose a candidate race at this point? I think it's something

that they're certainly worried about. He's in a tough race, it's a toss up, and presumably you're

looking for any kind of an edge or to prevent your opponent from getting an edge over you.

Okay, so Republicans running for Senate for governor, they're telling a different story.

What about President Trump's messaging on data centers? He initially, at least, was very,

very bullish on AI investment in the U.S. Let's get these AI companies out here. What is Trump

been saying? This is sort of a story in two or three parts.

As President Trump took office again last year, he was overall trying to portray his second term

as president as quote, a golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance.

And as part of that, he issued an executive order trying to make it easier to build data centers

in the United States. And I think that's probably why last year most Republicans across the board

were talking about data centers as a benefit to the country and to the communities where they

were being built. Talking about jobs, talking about investment. But like I said, the tide turned.

And so on the one hand, you have President Trump promoting this bill that would protect people

from having data centers cause their color bills to go up. We're insisting that AI data centers

and big tech companies pay their own way. And that's what they're doing and they're happy to do it.

Because this way they're going to be able to function and function brilliantly. They're going to have

a lot of electricity left over and they'll put that into the grid. But on the other hand, he just wrote

earlier this week on Truth Social. The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A.

should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. They want to be

successful and rich. But far lower taxes and jobs all over the place. Let data reign.

So he's still very pro data center, which is kind of fascinating.

Let's talk about the Democrats. Which Democrats in particular are we seeing change their minds?

Yeah, there are a lot of governors who used to be very positive on data centers, you know,

in their states, because these bring jobs, these bring construction investments, some amount of

permanent jobs, some amount of construction jobs, some examples of folks who are now limiting

data centers in their states include Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

Oh, Governor, I confess I was surprised because previously you've been very bullish on data center

development. You said it would ensure the future of AI runs right through Pennsylvania. So what prompted

that 180? You know, I listened. And I'm here to say today that we will not be bullied by these

developers. We will not be bulldozed by the lawyers for these big tech companies that will not happen

here in the Commonwealth. JB Pritzker of Illinois. Folks, these days data centers are asking just

too much for too little in return, whether it's electricity or clean water, we can't let them

cause our utility bills to go up. The most striking case of a Democrat whose rhetoric has shifted so much

is representative Rokana of California, whose district actually includes Silicon Valley.

In 2025, he was calling for building more data centers in the United States versus overseas.

When the Trump administration did an AITO with the United Arab Emirates, he said,

why are we putting data centers and research hubs in Dubai? Why aren't we putting the biggest

research and technology AI hub in a place like Western Pennsylvania that wants those data centers?

Why aren't we putting it in Ohio? But now he's more critical calling for quote, an end to data center

extraction, taking communities water and jacking up their bills, sucking all the money into the

hands of a few tech billionaires. You can't shove a data center down the throats of a local community

without any say that that community has. You can't be jacking up electricity prices.

Even the technology leaders understand that there needs to be a pause so that we can get this

right. Is anyone in either party still coming out hard strong for data centers?

My favorite example of this is representative Eric Burleson, who's a Republican from Missouri.

He is really focused on the need to build data centers in order to compete with China.

In June, he wrote, ask yourself who benefits when Americans turn against data centers. China does.

He's making the point that I think a lot of people in tech are making, which is

this is coming, whether you like it or not. Part of politics is

dealing with reality. In this day and age, it seems constituents don't want to deal with that

reality. Clearly, there are people who hold office or who hope to hold office,

who are going to maintain the line that this is something we just got to do.

Right, exactly. This is a classic political science dispute about what a politician's job is supposed to be.

If you accept a premise that we need data centers to build a wonderful technological future,

or keep pace with China, or whatever the argument is, is the job of a politician to just do

what their constituents want to be their tribute in Washington? Or is it to be the wise,

thoughtful leader who's willing to push back when the constituents are missing something important?

This is one thing I keep in mind when analyzing, particularly what some of these

governors who shifted more recently, is they're talking about the downsides of data centers.

They're talking about mitigating those downsides. They're saying, oh, we need to get data centers to

pay their fair share. We need to make sure that data centers don't screw up our water. We need to make

sure they don't raise your power bills. We need to make sure they give back. But then it's so that we

can build them and still reap the benefits while mitigating the costs.

Jeremy, you will be aware working for the Washington Post that we live in deeply polarized times.

And so what often happens is that if Republicans are in favor of something, Democrats are not.

If Democrats are in favor of something, Republicans are not. That's just sort of the way this is

played out for years now. The thing that makes data centers so interesting is that

you find candidates within each party that are pro and against. What is it about this issue,

do you think, that has got us to this place? We're polarized, but we're not polarized in the same

way that we're often polarized. Yeah, this is really interesting. You know, one possibility is that

this is coming from the grassroots so much. And bubbling up to politicians and political elites.

That everybody kind of got the signal at the same time that this was something that they ought to

oppose. The other possibility is people have for a while been saying, are we living through a

sort of generational political realignment in the United States, where a lot of things are up for grabs.

You don't see a lot of the sort of libertarian adjacent, pro business, free markets, free trade,

Republican party. And so when all these issues are up for grabs, politicians see opportunity in

being innovative rather than sort of sticking with the same traditional views of their party for a long time.

Jeremy Merrill, he's a data reporter with the Washington Post.

Ariana Spudu produced today's show in Miranda Kennedy, Editedtick, David Tadashore,

and Bridger Dunnigan engineered in Gabriel, Donatov, Check the Facts. I'm Noelle King, it's today,