In today’s bipartisan political climate, few issues are bipartisan, but data centers and their development projects have become a top target of ire for elected officials, candidates, and voters on both sides of the aisle.
Among Democrats, environmentalists are leading the charge against data center development. The “green” left wing of the party focuses on pollution and water consumption as the two main reasons for opposing any proposals for data center development. New York’s most vocal socialist Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, better known as AOC, recently brought a jar of contaminated water to her colleagues in the U.S. Congress that she used during a dramatic speech. On the surface, this issue may seem like a typical Democratic complaint about corporations harming the environment, but it goes far beyond the political realm.
Polls show that local Republican voters are concerned about rising energy costs and the potential for foreign influence on the very data the center stores and provides. Independent voters remain skeptical of job creation estimates touted by data center developers.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that prevents energy and water utilities from increasing consumer rates based on data center usage. The bill also restricts foreign investors from developing data centers in Florida. In other states, utilities offset costs through contracts with high-tech companies that invest in data center development.
Ben Burnett, a conservative talk radio host in Atlanta, highlighted the costs and benefits in an op-ed he wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon don’t need state tax subsidies. They don’t need power discounts,” Barnett said. Did you know Georgia Power offers a return guarantee? Did you know that the stock of Southern Company, owner of Georgia Power, is trading near all-time highs? Southern Company is exclusively protected by the federal government… look at data centers like the Interstate System of the 1950s. 56 Marietta Street is a downtown connector. That’s a blessing for the region. Some say the data center could choose another state, and others say it does. Alabama and Mississippi want 56 Marietta Street. Data center providers will overwhelmingly choose Georgia. Atlanta is oxygen for them and AI is strategic for America. But these costs should be spread across the country, not just within the country. Georgia is great when it comes to data centers, but that’s not the battle. This battle is about power, both literally and figuratively. ”
Journalist John Stossel, who started his career as a consumer advocate, analyzed politicians’ claims and compared them to available statistics.
Stossel believes the backlash against data centers overlooks broader economic and technological interests. Stossel argues that the slow development of AI infrastructure in the United States could leave the country behind its competitors, especially China. He also disputed claims that data centers are clearly driving up electricity prices, citing research that found no direct link between data centers and accelerating electricity price increases, including in Northern Virginia, where data centers are concentrated.
Some concerns about data centers are legitimate, particularly regarding local water use, power grid upgrades, and whether homeowners are helping pay for new infrastructure.
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a pro-energy free market organization, and critics associate it with fossil fuels and conservative funding, so its perspective should be considered with that in mind. At the same time, potential vested interests do not automatically disprove an organization’s claims. IER concluded its report by stating that it did not find a statistically significant relationship between data center concentration and the rate of increase in electricity prices. A fair way to judge this argument is to look at independent evidence on things like electricity prices, water usage, grid capacity, and whether ratepayers are being asked to subsidize data center growth.
Other organizations considered far more neutral than IER, such as DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, International Energy Agency, EPRI, Duke University Nicholas Institute, and Brookings University, have found that the biggest claims about data centers are often exaggerated. Their research shows that while data centers are rapidly increasing electricity consumption, they are not yet the main driver of domestic and global electricity demand growth. A key challenge is the concentration of data centers in certain regions and whether power companies, regulators, and data center companies can ensure these companies pay their fair share and help reduce demand at a time when the grid is under stress.
International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA estimates that data centers will use around 1.5% of the world’s electricity in 2024, and the base case predicts that this could nearly double to just under 3% by 2030.
The IEA said that in the broader global context, a 3% share in 2030 means that data centers still have a limited share of total electricity demand. It also pointed out that data centers will account for less than 10% of the growth in global electricity demand from 2024 to 2030, with industry, electrification, electric vehicles and air conditioning also driving demand.
U.S. Department of Energy/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The DOE’s summary of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report states that in 2023, U.S. data centers will use about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity, which could increase from 6.7% to 12% by 2028. While this partially refutes the argument that data centers already consume the overwhelming share of the national grid, it also confirms that growth is significant and requires planning.
Electric Power Research Institute
EPRI is not an anti-data center or pro-liberal organization. It is a major research institute in the power sector. The 2026 data center scenario is useful because it shows that the problem is geographically heterogeneous. EPRI predicts that data centers could consume between 9% and 17% of U.S. electricity by 2030, but the impact varies widely by state. The report says Virginia is currently the only state where data centers consume more than 20% of electricity, but more states could exceed that threshold by 2030.
EPRI said that while the national numbers are grave, the crisis is not uniform across the country. The real question is whether a particular local power grid can handle concentrated demand.
Duke University Nicholas Institute
Researchers at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute have found that if data centers could reduce their electricity use during a small number of peak stress periods each year, the U.S. power grid could accommodate about 100 gigawatts of additional data center load without building new power plants. Brookings also mentioned this finding in his analysis of AI’s energy needs.
brookings institute
Brookings acknowledged affordability and environmental concerns, but also highlighted ways operators can reduce strain on the grid. Brookings cites examples of AI workloads slowing, pausing, or shifting during periods of stress on the power grid. This includes one field test that reduced data center power consumption by 25% over three hours while maintaining quality of service.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether data centers pose as significant a risk to U.S. health and economic security as critics claim. Only time will tell.
