Americans now express greater support for coal power plants near their communities than artificial intelligence data centers, according to polling by Heatmap Pro—a striking reversal that threatens the tech industry's expansion plans as it races to compete with China.
The public shows more skepticism toward data centers than toward gas-fired power plants, wind farms, battery storage facilities, or even nuclear plants, the polling found. Support for constructing data centers near American communities has declined sharply over the past year in a bipartisan shift, with both Republicans and Democrats turning skeptical.
The backlash has been fueled by viral social media posts and alarmist coverage. Progressive activist David Hogg tweeted that if data centers are truly essential to national security and the economy, "they should prove it by building them in the richest zip codes in America first." The post later drew a community note pointing out that Loudoun County, Virginia—the nation's wealthiest county—already hosts the most data centers.
Americans cite water consumption, electricity price impacts, and environmental concerns as primary reasons for opposing data center construction. Industry analysts say these fears are exaggerated. Analyst Andy Masley has documented that data centers consume only a small fraction of water used by other sectors. By 2030, all American data centers are projected to use water equivalent to just 8 percent of what the U.S. golf industry consumes annually.
The intensifying backlash has alarmed tech executives, who view it as a political crisis that could persist through 2028 and beyond. The geopolitical stakes add urgency to the conflict: China-linked bots have reportedly amplified anti-data-center messaging, suggesting U.S. rivals benefit from the domestic infighting.
Industry leaders argue that data centers are critical to economic growth, job creation, and competition with China for technological dominance. But that argument has struggled to gain traction with voters confronting what they see as local threats to water supplies and power grids.
