Recent polls have strongly reflected many Americans’ dislike of data centers. A Gallup poll from May found that 71% of Americans would oppose a data center in their area. Voters have sent early warning shots that they are willing to choose their local leaders based on the issue. In the small town of Festus, Missouri, residents ousted half their city council after those members approved a $6 billion data center development.
Alejandra Gomez, the executive director of the non-profit LUCHA, says that the moratorium emerged from the passionate advocacy of many Arizonans—and in the face of fierce counter-lobbying from the data center industry led by former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
Tech industry lobbying and campaign donations have proved effective in recent years. In 2024, I wrote about crypto’s successful efforts to get many candidates to support pro-crypto stances. But while the AI industry is putting an avalanche of money into races, the results so far have been different, partially because so many people from so many different backgrounds and ideologies hate data centers. Gomez says that “all of the efforts of this significant lobby came crumbling down because Arizonans have been dialed into this fight and have not stopped speaking out against the extraction of these data centers.”
The industry, unsurprisingly, has a different view. “There is a foreign influence campaign underway to degrade America's lead in the AI race, and they just scored another victory in Arizona,” Sinema, a co-chair of the AI Infrastructure Coalition, wrote in an email to TIME. “What this tax-exemption moratorium actually does is tell the companies delivering real economic growth to our communities that Arizona is closed for business, and the jobs, tax revenue, and economic future that come with them should go to neighboring states instead."
Community Engagement
Ultimately, the vote failed 5-3, with city council members and the mayor arguing that breaking a binding deal would put taxpayers at risk. But Josh Acevedo, the city council member who introduced the proposal, says the fight is not over—and expects the energy around the dispute to carry forward into coming elections. “It is unlike anything I've ever seen in my community before, to see people that showed up that had no idea where City Hall was,” he says. “Some of them may have not even voted before. But they're concerned about this issue.”
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