Towns rebel against data center projects

[wtg]

Voters in a small Missouri town, unhappy with the city council’s approval of a $6 billion data center, struck back at the polls last week, ousting all four incumbent council members running for reelection.

On the same day as the Festus election, voters in Port Washington, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb, where tech giants Oracle and OpenAI are building a $15 billion data center campus, also registered their disapproval by overwhelmingly passing a first-of-a-kind referendum to restrict future projects. At least three other cities across the country will vote on similar measures this year.

The rout of half the Festus City Council was fueled by a surge in voter turnout and widespread frustration with the data center approval process.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/13/missouri-city-council-data-center-00867259

[CHAS]

It is great that people are using their power. Hope they continue to do that instead of feeling powerless.

[Axtremus]

Is it rational?
We have had locals voting against Walmarts and Home Depots, nuclear generators, Amazon warehouses, wind generators, energy pipelines, ICE detention centers, cell towers, etc. This time, it's data centers.
Is it rational this time?

[Daniel]

Ax, I am operating under the hypothetical that your question is Socratic.

Disclaimer- I don't, in fact, know exactly how to interpret it.

In any case, here is my reply-

Your question implies that everything in your list previous to data centers drew opposition that was not rational.

The following points stand out to me-

i. It is completely rational to oppose detention centers. Studies have been done showing that these detention centers share the same architecture as slave ships and concentration camps.

The harsh reality, also, is that they include rooms where firearms can be used to shoot people, and they contain incinerators.

They, also, burden the infrastructure of their localities with demands for water and electricity use without urban planning is advance.

ii. It is completely rational to oppose data centers. Please see my last point above.

Thanks for your thought provoking question.