The freakout over data centers is just another fracking backlash we need to ignore
The future of America as a high-tech superpower is at a tipping point.
The latest Fox poll shows 70% of Americans now oppose building new data centers in their communities, even though they are crucial to our future as a high-tech economy. Another report shows that 40% of new data centers have been delayed or canceled in 2026 — news that’s deeply welcome to our opponents in the artificial intelligence (AI) and tech race, the Communist Chinese Party.
Data centers have become an electoral issue for the midterms, even in a red state like Texas where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has announced a construction moratorium. It’s probably the only thing he has in common with ultra-liberal Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York: a willingness to hit the pause button on data centers.
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This backlash comes despite the fact that every policymaker knows that data centers are needed to power our future economy, from AI to the Internet of Things and the cloud, and that the only real beneficiary of a moratorium will be China. Still, the public remains unconvinced, especially when it faces a zoning proposal to build a data center half a mile from its backyard.
This all sounds discouraging, but we’ve been here before. Just a decade ago, the advent of large-scale fracking, or horizontal drilling, for oil and gas faced a similar frenzy of opposition. If today’s anti-data center forces have strong support from communist China (which has been linked to more than 200 accounts on X, promoting data center misinformation) then it was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Russian media that amplified the anti-fracking movement here and in Europe.
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It got so bad that fracking became a flashpoint in the culture wars, with left-wing celebrities like Jane Fonda, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo organizing protests and blockades, resulting in bans on fracking in several states.
Yet, in the end, the fearmongers lost and the energy companies won, as did America’s strategic and economic interests. Today, thanks to fracking, America is the world’s No. 1 oil and gas producer. That’s why hostilities with Iran haven’t caused a panic at the pump. A new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says without America’s current oil and gas independence, the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz would have cut the U.S. employment rate by nearly 2%.
How the energy companies turned the public around on fracking offers powerful lessons for today’s AI executives and power companies on data centers.
First, fracking companies understood that all politics with environmental issues like this, is local. This isn’t a war you can macro-manage from the boardroom or Washington. Instead, it’s a series of wars that have to be fought state by state, district by district, even neighborhood by neighborhood.
This means partnering with local businesses and local governments, to talk about how building a new data center expands jobs and opportunities for everyone, not just AI or tech companies. It also means seeking out places that will welcome a new data center for the same reasons, and using them as examples of how data centers can coexist with traditional communities and values.
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Second, it means partnering with responsible environmental and citizen associations to emphasize how data center builders will be staying within agreed-upon safety and cost guidelines, such as President Donald Trump’s insistence that they come with their own power supply so as not to raise electricity rates. This partnership can work to dispel the myths being spread by the opposition.
One of those myths that nearly stopped fracking was that it polluted the water supply. Companies were able to prove that fracking didn’t affect the water supply except where the water table was already low- and where engineers wouldn’t want to sink a well, anyway.
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Anti-data center fanatics spread similar falsehoods about data centers using up water, when in fact your average golf course consumes more. Likewise, companies can emphasize that technical and safety improvements take place every year. The data centers built five years ago will look like technological dinosaurs compared to the ones that are coming.
Third, don’t let up on the focus of what happens if we don’t. Fracking executives were able to remind people of what energy dependence looked like, with long gas lines and soaring prices. We can remind average Americans of the gains China will make, and the advantages we lose, if Beijing wins the data center wars. Do you really want the country that gave us COVID-19 deciding the future of AI?
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Finally, people need to realize new data centers aren’t just about growing AI. They’re essential to modern life, as the number of devices we use requires more and more power. The average U.S. household uses between 17 and 21 internet-connected devices, compared to only two or three devices in 2010. All that connectivity makes increasing demands the future grid won’t be able to match without new data centers.
America, and Americans, won the battle over fracking 10 years ago. They can do it again with data centers today.