Energy & Environment

The Best Way To Keep Data Centers From Driving Up Electricity Costs

Don't impose a moratorium. Produce more energy.

Ari Shtein | 6.8.2026 11:15 AM

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Public backlash to data centers is growing. About 70 percent of Americans would not want a new data center built near their homes, according to a new poll from Heatmap News. A majority, 55 percent, said they would "strongly oppose" it.

The same poll asked respondents why they thought electricity prices were rising, and 53 percent—up from 28 percent last August—blamed "the construction of new data centers." Fear over data centers' energy use, and to a lesser extent water use, is driving a broad backlash to their buildout.

While it's simply untrue that any big data center anywhere is consuming a dangerous amount of local drinking water (or that the total sum of AI infrastructure is consuming much at all), there is some legitimate debate as........

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