Technology

Where Can the Data Centers Go?

In a committee hearing yesterday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez complained about data centers' impacts on rural areas and industrial parks.

Christian Britschgi | 7.22.2026 2:45 PM

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During a discussion of data centers' environmental and public health impacts at yesterday's meeting of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) asked what one would assume she thought was a devastating rhetorical question. 

"Ask Peter Thiel, ask Elon Musk, ask Mark Zuckerberg if they want one of these data centers in their own backyard," she said. "Ask any one of us here on this committee. If anyone wants to live right next to one of these data centers here on this committee, please raise your hand."

This is pretty standard populist demagoguery. The billionaires investing in data centers don't want to live next to them, so why should you have to? 

The congresswoman is probably not wrong that few billionaires would want to live next to a data center. If you can afford the scenic ocean view, why choose a boxy warehouse building full of computers as your neighbor? 

Ocasio-Cortez's latest anti-data center grandstanding does raise one question, though. Where exactly does she think data centers can........

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