Recently, the debate about data centers has exploded across the country. Americans, who disagree on various political issues, are finding common ground in opposing data centers. 

According to a March 2026 Gallup poll, Americans are solidly opposed to “the construction of a data center in your area to support artificial intelligence, or AI, technology in the U.S.” In fact, more people oppose an AI data center in their area (71 percent) than a nuclear power plant (53 percent). The poll found that strong support for data centers is practically non-existent: 7 percent.

What are data centers? They can be defined as gigantic facilities that “house computing equipment that helps power AI technology used by businesses, universities, and other institutions.” 

The drawback for many Americans is that the data centers “cover large areas of land, require extensive amounts of electricity to operate, and need substantial water to cool the equipment.” This leads to understandable “concerns about their impact on the environment and local electric bills.”

In Texas, the opposition to data centers was so fierce that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott “pressed pause on any new data center…in the state of Texas.” In a Sunday interview on ABC’s This Week, Abbott said that the data centers received justifiable “backlash” from residents and “dug their own grave” by refusing to work closely with local governments and state officials.

Henceforth, Abbott will demand that all data centers “lower the cost of electricity for consumers” and not disturb “neighborhoods or rural communities.” Among the other “guardrails” that Abbott is instituting for data centers are requirements that water not be taken “from communities that need it” and power not be taken from “the Texas power grid........

© Townhall