On Tuesday, Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) released new polling on voters’ attitudes towards data centers. The polling asked voters about their concerns regarding data centers in their communities and the guardrails they support on data center construction, finding that the majority of voters prefer policymakers establish strong rules on transparency, energy usage, and community input instead of freezing data center projects through moratoriums.
The poll, conducted by Morning Consult from July 17 to 19, surveyed over 2,000 registered voters with a margin of error of ±2%. The full poll is available here.
“The biggest concern Americans have regarding data centers is that they’re being shut out of the conversation over the future of their community,” said ARI President Brad Carson. “Data centers projects are using NDAs, negotiating tax subsidies behind closed doors, and displacing energy costs all with little to no voter input. Data centers can bring benefits to communities, but residents must be able to trust that their everyday lives won’t be harmed by these buildouts. Transparency and strong guardrails are key to ensuring that communities have the information they need to engage with local leaders on this issue.”
Americans for Responsible Innovation recently published the Data Center Playbook, a guide providing local residents with information on how to engage in data center siting decisions in their area. The advocacy guides include examples of where residents and lawmakers have successfully used levers available to them to increase transparency around data center agreements, secure local benefits, or guard against agreements that don’t serve the public
For more information on the information gap created by opaque data center energy use and construction, read ARI’s latest white paper, Information is Power: The Case for Data Center Transparency. The report lays out a framework for how the federal government should approach mandating transparency from the companies building data centers.
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at ARI.us.