2026-11-02 · Source：Tom's Hardware
The new database spans more than 410 local governments and 10,000 comments — and in 73% of meetings, no data center supporter showed up.
Over 90% of the public comments Americans have filed about data centers are negative. For an industry that positions itself as the indispensable backbone of the AI economy, that is a blunt measure of how badly the pitch lands at the local level.
A newly launched website is trying to make sense of that record, distilling more than 10,000 public comments submitted about data centers to more than 410 local governments across the country. Its conclusion, stated without much diplomacy, is that America hates data centers. What the project offers beyond the provocation is structure: a centralized account of what residents actually say when these facilities arrive at town halls, planning boards and zoning hearings.
One number deserves particular attention from the AI side of the industry: only 21% of the comments mention AI at all.
That gap reframes the siting debate. Communities are not, for the most part, arguing about models, competition or the future of computing — they are arguing about what the facility next door will take from them. Water is the number one concern among commenters, which means the fight is being waged over aquifers, tap quality and household supply rather than over the technology the buildings are meant to serve. An industry that communicates in terms of national AI competitiveness is, by this record, answering a question few people at the local level are asking.
The imbalance extends into the meeting rooms themselves: in 73% of the gatherings captured in the database, no data center supporter showed up at all.
For developers, utilities and the investors funding the compute buildout, the database amounts to something the industry has not previously had — a quantified, centralized measure of local resistance. The numbers here suggest the decisive battles over AI infrastructure are not playing out in Washington or on earnings calls, but in municipal hearings where the affirmative case is frequently left unmade, and where, on this record, the opposition has had the floor largely to itself.
Tags: Data Center · Public Comments Database · Water Usage · Local Government · AI Infrastructure · Community Opposition
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