Gallup finds 70% of Americans, spanning both parties, oppose local AI data center construction

Gallup polling shows roughly 70% of Americans oppose local AI data center construction, with opposition at 75% among Democrats and 63% among Republicans; 53% of conservative Republicans also oppose it. At least 75 projects worth roughly $130 billion were stalled or blocked in the first three months of 2026 alone. Opposition is driven by local grievances including rising electricity bills, water scarcity, noise, land use, tax breaks to developers, and distrust of tech company executives. Observers are questioning whether the cross-partisan opposition can remain insulated from broader partisan polarization.

Plans for 82 new gas-burning power plants to power AI data centers would produce CO2 roughly equal to half of all US passenger vehicles annually. Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the state's Public Utility Commission to audit all data center projects and pause approvals pending those audits. A Politico poll found nearly 60% of Americans believe data centers raise electricity bills.

The Bipartisan Policy Center submitted analysis to the Department of Energy's RFI on AI infrastructure on federal lands, finding a patchwork of state-level tax incentives alongside local zoning restrictions and moratoria in jurisdictions including Kootenai County, Idaho, and parts of Illinois. Major investment continues in parallel: Nexus Data Centers is seeking $15 billion to build an Anthropic data center in Texas backed by Google, and Anthropic signed a $10 billion, six-year compute deal with Volta Infra Holdings and Bitdeer for compute capacity in Norway.