The cons, honestly

We'll do the cons first, with numbers. We're not scared.

• Power: US data centers used 4.4% of US electricity in 2023, projected at 6.7% to 12% by 2028^[1]. A typical AI-focused data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the largest under construction will use 20 times that^[2].
• Capacity costs: on tight grids, new load pushes prices up. PJM's market monitor says data center load caused 46.2% of capacity market charges over the last four auctions^[4].
• Water: US data centers used about 66 billion liters of water on site in 2023^[1]. A large facility can use up to 5 million gallons a day^[15], and about two-thirds of data centers built or in development since 2022 are in water-stressed areas^[5].
• Noise: cooling fans run around the clock. Smaller diesel backup generators reach about 85 dB and large ones approach 100 dB^[5].
• Air: diesel backup generators emit 200 to 600 times more nitrogen oxides than a gas power plant^[5]. A Caltech and UC Riverside modeling study estimated US data center air pollution could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths a year by 2030^[8].
• Jobs: even the largest data centers employ fewer than 150 permanent staff^[5]. One former Virginia office campus had 5,300 workers at its peak; the data centers replacing it will employ about 100 to 150^[15].
• Land and tax deals: the average new site covered about 224 acres in 2024^[5], and Virginia's sales tax incentive saves data center companies more than $130 million a year^[15].

The pros

• Tax base: in Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers paid $1.2 billion in property taxes in fiscal 2026, 39% of the county budget^[3]. In 2020 Loudoun collected $424.7 million from data centers against an estimated $32.3 million in public costs^[14]. They send no kids to school.
• Pay: the average private-sector data center employee in Virginia earned an estimated $134,308 in 2020, more than double the state average of $62,250^[14].
• Construction: in 2021 Virginia had almost twice as many people building data centers as running them^[14].
• Bills, surprisingly: an EPRI causal study found data centers modestly lowered average US retail electricity rates from 2015 to 2024, because fixed grid costs got spread over more sales^[6].
• Grid flexibility: data centers can shift when they use power and water, and some utilities let them act like a battery for the grid^[13].
• Waste heat: a data center in Finland heats the surrounding community^[13].
• Everything else: your email, your bank, your hospital records, and every AI model run in a data center.

Why the pros win

Every con on the list is an engineering or policy problem with a known fix. The pros vanish if you never build.

• Diesel generators: large on-site batteries remove generator noise and pollution^[13].
• Noise: closed-loop adiabatic cooling is quieter^[13]. Put a limit at the property line.
• Water: air-side economizers and dry coolers cut water use in dry places^[1].
• Bills: make big users pay their way. AEP Ohio requires data centers to pay for at least 85% of the energy they subscribe to^[5], and PJM's market monitor wants data centers in their own capacity auction^[4].
• Siting: data centers don't have to be next door. Fiber lets them sit in industrial zones with power and network links^[17].

The anti-data center position treats a list of fixable problems as a reason to stop. That's like banning kitchens because stoves get hot.

Pros and cons at a glance

Cons that don't survive a fact check

• 'Bills near data centers went up 267%': PolitiFact rated it Mostly False. The number was wholesale prices at grid nodes, not household bills^[7].
• 'They drink more water than anything': US golf courses use more than 500 billion gallons a year and lawns over 2 trillion^[15].
• 'They emit dangerous radiation': servers give off low-level non-ionizing fields that stay near the building^[12].
• 'They crash home values': the National Association of Realtors found no single data center effect on housing^[11].

Who carries the cons

The cons land unevenly. A review of about 700 data centers cited by WRI found nearly half in census tracts with above-median environmental burdens^[5]. That's a siting problem, and it has siting answers: industrial zones with power and fiber^[17], battery backup instead of diesel^[13], and community benefits agreements like Lancaster, Pennsylvania's, which sets aside $10 million each for economic development and for climate and community goals^[5].

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