{"id":280395,"date":"2026-02-04T01:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T06:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/?p=280395"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:38:46","slug":"the-local-costs-of-the-ai-boom-ensuring-data-centers-deliver-community-benefits-in-the-midst-of-hypergrowth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/the-local-costs-of-the-ai-boom-ensuring-data-centers-deliver-community-benefits-in-the-midst-of-hypergrowth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Local Costs of the AI Boom: Ensuring Data Centers Deliver Community Benefits In The Midst of Hypergrowth"},"content":{"rendered":"

In December of last year, Senator Bernie Sanders <\/span>called for<\/span><\/a> a national moratorium on the construction of data centers \u201cthat are powering the unregulated sprint to develop & deploy AI.\u201d Sanders\u2019 stand follows bipartisan <\/span>backlash<\/span><\/a> resisting proposals to construct data centers in communities across the country. <\/span>Recent reporting<\/span><\/a> from Data Center Watch shows an estimated 125% surge in opposition to data centers between March 2025 and June 2025, preventing or delaying $98 billion in data center projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the race for artificial intelligence (AI) has <\/span>accelerated<\/span><\/a>, communities \u2013 particularly those in <\/span>rural<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>disadvantaged<\/span><\/a> areas \u2013 find themselves at the center of the technology\u2019s future. On the one hand, data centers potentially offer an influx of capital investment, demand for labor and additional tax revenue to help revitalize local and regional economies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, data centers also come with distinct costs, namely rising <\/span>water and energy<\/span><\/a> costs, increased strain on utilities infrastructure and environmental degradation and pollution that can have <\/span>significant ramifications for public health<\/span><\/a>. With capital expenditures on data centers <\/span>expected to continue to increase<\/span><\/a> this year after unprecedented levels of investment in 2025, it is critical that community-based organizations, local governments and residents understand the tradeoffs of data centers as well as the levers at their disposal to ensure construction happens (or doesn\u2019t) on their own terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the following article, we will provide an overview of what data centers are, explain what\u2019s driving the rush to build them and analyze what geographical areas tend to be most vulnerable to the rapid expansion of data centers. We will also discuss strategies and policy levers community leaders have to ensure data center projects lead to equitable community development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a data center?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Data centers <\/span><\/a>are physical buildings housing file servers and networking equipment that can store, process and analyze various data sources including text, images, code and other information. Data centers house the infrastructure needed to run the computer algorithms behind programs like ChatGPT. While more recent advances have been driven by AI, data centers have been an important part of the modern digital economy for many years, helping to support internet connectivity and large software systems often referred to as the \u201ccloud\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most data centers house servers (connected computers) and storage systems capable of vast numbers of calculations and computing applications. There are <\/span>several general categories of data centers<\/span><\/a> to be aware of:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n