<p id="speakable-summary" class="wp-block-paragraph">As data centers have grown and proliferated, so too has the backlash. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A new Harvard/MIT poll found 40% of people supported the building of a data center in their area, with 32% opposed when asked about the building of different industrial facilities in their neighborhoods.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One fun tidbit from the survey, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/data-centers-concerns-ai-electricity-harvard-mit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">per Axios</a>: More people would rather have an e-commerce warehouse.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Two-thirds of respondents in the 1,000-person poll conducted in November were worried that a new data center in their region would <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/01/rising-energy-prices-put-ai-and-data-centers-in-the-crosshairs/">nudge electricity prices higher</a>. Interest in jobs and economic growth helped the case for data centers, according to Axios — though that sentiment may fade as most data center projects <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/10/nx-s1-5355017/data-centers-bring-money-to-small-towns-but-do-they-also-bring-jobs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">don’t employ many people</a> once they’re up and running.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Another survey, conducted last month and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/30/ai-trust-adoption-poll-more-americans-adopt-tools-fewer-say-they-can-trust-the-results/">published earlier this week</a> by Quinnipiac University, found much more opposition to data center construction. That poll found 65% of Americans oppose building an AI data center in their community. Only 24% of the 1,397 U.S. adults surveyed supported one being built.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The new polls suggest that the debate over data centers is far from settled, and continued discontent from such a large swathe of the electorate is likely to continue <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/25/the-public-opposition-to-ai-infrastructure-is-heating-up/">spilling over into politics</a>. Data centers once worked quietly in the background, more or less. Not anymore.</p>
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