Construction has commenced on an approximately 3,200-acre power plant and data center campus site in Homer City.
Photographer: Justin Merriman/BloombergPush to Make US Voters Love AI Gives Them New Cause to Fear It
The White House and state leaders want data centers to provide their own electricity — a plan that isn’t overcoming opposition in local communities.
From the White House to the statehouse, many US politicians who’ve been cheerleading the data-center boom are now trying to defuse a growing backlash ahead of midterm elections. But the plan they’ve hit on isn’t winning over the skeptics.
President Donald Trump and state governors like Pennsylvania Democrat Josh Shapiro are pushing the power-hungry AI facilities to buy or generate their own electricity. That’s meant to assuage concern among voters about rising utility bills. It might just be giving them something else to worry about instead.