Data centers are booming. But there are big energy and environmental risks

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Google recently courted the township of Franklin, Ind., so that it could construct a giant campus to house the computer hardware that powers its internet business. But the company needed to rezone more than 450 acres in the Indianapolis suburb, and residents weren't having it.

Many were concerned the facility would consume huge amounts of water and electricity while delivering few local benefits. When a lawyer representing Google confirmed at a September public meeting that the company was pulling its data center proposal , cheers erupted from sign-waving residents.

Similar fights are happening around the United States. On one side are companies pouring billions of dollars into data centers, which increasingly are being built to support artificial intelligence models that promise to transform how people live and work. On the other side are residents who worry the construction spree will have dire consequences for the environment, power prices and surrounding communities.

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How tech companies and government officials handle those concerns will shape the industry's future in the U.S. and the country's competitiveness, according to analysts and academics who track the AI industry.

Local opposition "slowing down the development of the industry or distributing it in sort of weird regional patterns is probably the most overlooked potential outcome in this conversation," says Joseph Majkut, director of the energy security and climate change program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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