Roughly 65 percent of Americans oppose the construction of an artificial intelligence (AI) data center in their communities. Fears of resource allocation, environmental footprints, and a perceived lack of transparency have taken hold and continue to escalate. Data center construction has been canceled in numerous locations, and many counties and states are enacting pauses or moratoriums.
This backlash is reminiscent of the fracking panic which propagated in the 2010s. When extracting trapped oil and gas from dense rock formations became viable through the technological advances of horizontal drilling and seismic imaging—therefore substantially increasing our petroleum reserves—not everyone was on board. Air and water pollution fears as well as other community disruption concerns emerged. Protests, sit-ins, and blockades sprouted across the U.S.
Some cities and states prohibited fracking, but others embraced the breakthrough. Both data center opponents and advocates would be wise to learn a few lessons from the fracking era.
Kristen Walker is Senior Policy Analyst and Manager for Energy and Transportation with the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. Follow ACI on X @ConsumerPal.