{"id":382290,"date":"2026-10-28T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T10:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=382290"},"modified":"2026-10-28T03:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T10:20:26","slug":"data-centers-now-spark-a-rare-bipartisan-fight-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/data-centers-now-spark-a-rare-bipartisan-fight-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Data centers now spark a rare bipartisan fight in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Across the U.S., data centers are running into bipartisan resistance, turning zoning, utility, and environmental disputes into local political fights. A project that once looked like an easy economic-development win<\/strong> now faces protests, permit challenges, and calls for moratoriums from people as far apart as Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon. Summer 2026 Annenberg polling showed the opposition crossing party lines: 69% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans said they opposed data centers in their own communities, and the partisan gap narrowed from 18 points to 15 in four months.<\/p>\n

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At the center of it is a basic question: who gets the upside, and who eats the cost? Supporters point to construction jobs, some lasting technical roles, and tax revenue. Critics focus on land use, environmental damage, stressed utilities, and the risk of higher household power bills<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

The numbers are big enough to make this more than a planning-board argument. By 2030, data centers could account for 12% to 17%<\/strong> of U.S. electricity use. A single facility can draw as much power as 100,000 homes. Large data center campuses can also use 5 million gallons of water a day, which is a real problem if you live in a fast-growing suburb or a drought-prone region.<\/p>\n\n

If you pay local utility bills, keep an eye on the fight over data center power costs<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

The buildout is still moving fast. The U.S. had 4,767 data centers<\/strong> by August 2026, and companies spent more than $22 billion on data centers in June alone. By October, at least 22 bans or moratoriums were active, while 29 states were considering or had already adopted restrictions. You can see the political response in the U.S. House of Representatives\u2019 417-3 approval of the Ratepayer Protection Act and in the proposed No Secrets for Data Centers Act.<\/p>\n

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Across the U.S., data centers are running into bipartisan resistance, turning zoning, utility, and environmental disputes into local political fights. A project that once looked like an easy economic-development win now faces protests, permit challenges, and calls for moratoriums from people as far apart as Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon. Summer 2026 Annenberg polling showed … Continue reading “Data centers now spark a rare bipartisan fight in the U.S.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9349,"featured_media":382289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6771],"class_list":["post-382290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","content-category-ai"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t