Data center opposition a rare issue uniting Americans across the political divide | 60 Minutes
In a Nutshell
Communities across the US are rising up against massive AI data centers, with residents in Red Oak, Texas and elsewhere fighting developments that threaten their water, power grids, and rural way of life. These facilities, now 200 times larger than previous generations, are being approved through secretive processes while consuming enormous resources and receiving massive tax breaks. The backlash is creating rare bipartisan opposition, with over 60% of Americans across all political affiliations rejecting data centers in their neighborhoods.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
America and the world are experiencing one of the most profound technological revolutions in human history with artificial intelligence poised to transform nearly every aspect of how we live and work. Behind this seemingly invisible revolution is something very physical: data centers. They are the factories of the AI age - vast industrial warehouses packed with powerful computer chips consuming enormous amounts of electricity.
There are more than 3,000 data centers across the country with another 1,500 proposed. Data centers are now one of the top issues in the midterm elections. The report focuses on Texas, where everything is bigger, including the development of data centers, to understand the backlash happening nationwide.
Jasmine Viegas lives on a quiet farm just outside Dallas, Texas. When she learned that a data center campus almost three times the size of the existing one a few miles away would be built next door, this mother of five and Marine veteran felt called back to duty.
"Ma'am, just because I'm not in uniform doesn't mean that my service to this country has ended. I stand strongly behind my oath that I took when I enlisted to protect and defend this constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
When asked if she believes data centers are an enemy, Viegas responded: "We're not sure. That's the thing. It might not be an enemy per se, but how do I know that these chemicals or this pollution, water, air, noise, isn't going to affect my community? Isn't going to affect me?"
Data centers have become vessels for broader worries including rising prices, the power of the tech elite, congestion and crowding, and a dawning AI era that threatens livelihoods and futures. In Loudoun County, Virginia, which has the world's highest concentration of data centers, electricity bills have surged in the last year at least in part because of growing power demand.
In Chandler, Arizona, residents worry about water being used to cool data centers when the state already has a shrinking supply. In Red Oak, Texas, construction workers' cars clog the roads for miles before dawn.
Residents accuse the city council of operating in secrecy. One resident stated: "And now you've been caught. You've been caught making decisions without transparency. Not one single person in that room was for the data center and the city council just went ahead and approved it."
Michael Weber is a professor at the University of Texas whose specialty is the relationship between water and energy. When tech companies want to build in Texas, they call Weber for advice. His guidance includes: "You need to pay your taxes and hire people and be power flexible, water positive, and carbon negative." He also has a direct message: "Don't be a jerk. Don't take the water. Don't break the grid. Don't ruin the land."
Data centers have been around for decades, but the speed of construction and size of those built for AI are unprecedented. The primary difference is scale: in the old days (meaning 2 years ago), a large data center might have been 5 megawatt. A new data center for AI might be 1,000 megawatt - 200 times larger.
Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are expected to spend $1.5 trillion building data centers through next year. Supporters believe the intelligence developing inside these warehouses will generate AGI (artificial general intelligence) that can match or surpass human capabilities, potentially leading to breakthroughs like curing cancer.
Building trade unions want more data centers due to the skilled labor needed. A CBS News analysis found golf courses nationwide use more than twice as much water as data centers.
There's a race to power where AI companies are competing to train their models to win the AI arms race. There are national security implications as well as great economic gains. The priority is for America to have AI capabilities before a bad actor like China.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's goal was attracting big tech, stating "Texas will be the centerpiece for AI data centers for Google in the entire world." The Democrat running against him in November, Gina Enosa, has made data centers a key issue in her campaign and is calling for a temporary moratorium.
Abbott took $20 million in campaign donations from data center executives and companies. In August, he paused approval of new data centers that withdraw from the state's power grid until they complete an audit.
Dave Low lives near the proposed data center in Red Oak and is a lifelong conservative Republican. He stated: "This is the first time in my adult life where there's been an issue that's come up that I feel like is going to directly impact me. And so this time around, I've made the decision that I'm not going to vote red or blue. I'm going to vote for the candidate that is willing to speak up and put up and do something to help us with this issue."
Opposition to data centers is one of the rare issues uniting Americans across the political divide. More than 60% of Republicans, independents, and Democrats all agree they don't want a data center where they live.
Low and Viegas are part of a group of a few dozen Red Oak residents across the political spectrum who meet twice a month. Their primary focus is stopping a developer called Compass from building 10 two-story data centers in their rural neighborhood on agricultural land the size of Manhattan's Central Park.
If completed, this would be just one of seven campuses set to cover more than a quarter of the entire town of Red Oak, which has a population of about 20,000.
Compass CEO Chris Crosby stated in July: "You know, we want to be part of the communities that we're in. We want to be long-term job creators. We want to be places where there's continued investment and growth that comes as a result of us."
In rural Hood County, 70 miles west of Red Oak, there are nine proposals for data centers covering approximately 8,000-10,000 acres. Dave Eagle is one of five elected officials on the commissioner's court which votes on these proposals.
The proposals have been shrouded in secrecy with project names including Project Yellow, Project Red, Project Lion, and Project Panther. Eagle believes developers want to make it hard to keep track of the projects.
An out-of-state company approached Hood County promising jobs and community upgrades but wouldn't reveal their identity. Two months later, it was revealed that Amazon Web Services was behind the proposal. AWS asked the county for up to 90% in property tax rebates for 30 years.
Eagle voted against the project, stating he couldn't give away 90% of tax revenue. The project is moving forward in the next county over where AWS received the tax rebate it wanted.
Blake O'Quinn is a third generation Texas rancher worried there won't be land for his cattle to graze or water for the herd to drink. He stated: "I feel like if we don't make a stand and educate the general public on what we do on a daily basis, yes, 100% our way of life can be threatened."
23 of the proposed data centers are planned in rural areas more used to farmhouses than warehouses. O'Quinn emphasized: "We're not all against change. That's not it. But the values, the traditions. We were blessed with this land. We're stewards of this land. We're here to take care of it and pass it on to the next generation of Texans. Rural Texans are going to fight as hard as anybody cuz that's all we know how to do. We won't give up. We're going to keep fighting against big tech AI and we'll prevail."
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