America on Data Centers: listen to 10,000+ city council comments
01
America hates data centers.
Public comments don't always match America's true sentiment, but our nation is clearly at a fever pitch of data center opposition.
02
73% of meetings had 0 data center supporters.
Even isolating for only meetings with any supporters, they were outnumbered 6:1.
03
Water use was the #1 concern.
88% of comments raise multiple concerns.
04
Distrust and transparency frequently come up.
Accusations of corruption also frequently occur, but are overwhelmingly false.
05
Americans are skeptical about the offered community benefits.
Many stated that they don't believe the proposed benefits will end up arriving.
06
Big Tech is called out 4.3x more than the AI labs.
Comments naming each company. An AI lab's bar counts the lab or its founder, and in a lighter shade, comments that name only its chatbot.
07
Elon was mentioned as often as Altman, Thiel, Zuck, Bezos, Gates, and O'Leary combined.
Highest net worth: Elon Musk. Lowest: Kevin O'Leary or Mustafa Suleyman.
08
AI isn't the leading concern in comments.
Surprisingly, 4/5 comments don't mention AI at all.
09
Red and blue counties oppose at the same rate.
Counties are grouped by their 2024 presidential vote; heavily means a 15-point margin or more. Heavily Republican counties raise land and community character more, heavily Democratic ones climate change and unfairness to poorer areas. The multiplier is how many times more often one side raises a concern.
10
Rural counties raise different concerns than urban and suburban ones.
Rural commenters raise community character, farmland, and property rights more often. Urban and suburban commenters raise transparency, government distrust, air pollution, and utility bills more often.
11
Union workers are the only group that mostly supports data centers.
Roles are what speakers said about themselves at the meeting. Union support is spread across 43 governments.
12
Data center discussions have risen 22× since 2022.
Based on Prophecy Gov's internal data on 300,000+ local government council meetings.
