Yesterday, Axios reported on a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It seems data centers are so wildly unpopular, support for them is now a political kiss of death. From Axios:
They tell us internal polls show data centers are as popular as spent nuclear waste, and more broadly have become a proxy for feelings about AI.
AI is as popular as nuclear waste. Incredible.
The memo was addressed not only to Republicans, but also to executives at AI companies. The subtext is clear: if you want our political support, you have to generate the public support. Directly from the NRSC memo:
Campaigns or party committees cannot fix the toxic brand of an entire segment of the economy. The companies that need these projects built have to fix how Ohioans see them: who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one. Until that happens, the issue will continue to dominate this race. If it is still this potent in November, elected officials everywhere will treat Ohio as their reason to work against data centers in the future. If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio.
There's no exaggeration here. The polls for local data center development are shockingly bad. See the graphic below from Heatmap.
And if you want to cross-reference the results of a climate journalism media outlet with a more neutral polling organization, the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania published similar findings a little over a week ago:
Opposition is not confined to a partisan subgroup. Majorities of Democrats (69%), Republicans (54%) and independents (53%) alike oppose new data centers in their area. Opposition is highest among adults under 30 (70%) and declines with age, to 57% among those 65 and older – a reversal of the usual pattern in which younger Americans are more receptive to new technology.
Interestingly, even though heavy AI users are less likely to believe AI will have a negative impact on the U.S., they oppose the construction of data centers—necessary for the rollout of AI—just as much as non-users.