The DCYB Wire

Three in four Americans now say they would oppose a data center near their home. At least 75 projects worth about $130 billion were blocked or delayed in the first quarter of 2026 alone, and moratorium bills appeared in 14 statehouses plus Congress.

The data centers now rising across the United States are the physical substrate of the most consequential scientific instrument humanity has ever built. The public debate about that infrastructure has detached from the evidence.

This study assembles the primary evidence across four domains — health, water, energy, and economics — and states plainly where the case is strong and where legitimate concerns remain. American golf courses use 30 times more water than every American data center combined. Data centers used 1.5 percent of global electricity in 2024, while compute grew 550 percent from 2010 to 2018 against a 6 percent rise in energy.

It also sets the standard communities should demand: disclose water and power before approval, cool without evaporating stressed local water, pay the full cost of grid connection, bring new firm clean generation with the load, replenish more than is consumed, and train and hire locally.