Left and right unite against AI data centers — SkimNews
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- Hernando County, Florida county commission unanimously approved a yearlong moratorium on data center construction last month, following a protest organized by the conservative group Humans First
- Humans First, founded by a former early Tea Party organizer, has shifted to focusing solely on mobilizing conservatives against AI data center build-outs, framing opposition as a populist-vs-technocrat divide rather than a left-right issue
- Protesters across Florida and Arizona cite localized concerns including groundwater contamination, PFAS chemicals, humidity unsuited for cooling, noise pollution, and rural blight — with similar objections surfacing in both humid and arid regions
- Data center employment fails to deliver on promised jobs, with each facility employing only a few hundred long-term maintenance workers after the initial construction boom, a gap that has eroded community support across party lines
- Conspiracy theories have attached to data centers, including a viral claim that cattle near facilities are stillborn — which a reporter traced back to one Texas farmer who reported a single stillborn calf
- National media attention often hinges on celebrity involvement (Kevin O'Leary in Utah) or political proximity (a Florida project near Mar-a-Lago), while similar developments like a potential OpenAI facility in Georgia fly under the radar
Why it matters: With moratoriums passing unanimously in a conservative Florida county and the movement's founder tracing her organizing roots to the Tea Party, the AI build-out faces a rare bipartisan voter coalition that operators and political allies cannot easily dismiss. Local officials are learning that reliably pro-business voters will pack commission meetings to fight AI infrastructure on environmental grounds — a dynamic that will reshape how data center permits are decided well before federal AI policy is sorted.
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