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Imagine you hear a knock at the door, you open it, and the person on the other side tells you they wanna buy your home. You think about it, you say no, and then they tell you they’re gonna take your property anyways. That’s something that’s happening in the US right now — as tech companies and utilities build massive AI data centers and the infrastructure to power them — and the law is often on their side. There are currently more than 3,000 data centers in the US – and thirty-eight percent of Americans live within five miles of one.
Virginia has more than any other state. It’s home to what’s known as “Data Center Alley” — which handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s internet traffic. With places like Loudoun County bringing in tax revenue from data centers nearly equal to the county’s entire operating budget. And — across the country — these projects have benefited from discounted electricity rates and tax breaks from state and local governments competing to attract their businesses. With Donald Trump's policies speeding up the approval process — partly by relaxing environmental regulations from clean air and water laws.
And with that, there are at least another 1,500 data centers planned in the country — and another four percent of Americans who don’t currently live near a data center live within 5 miles of one in development. And there are more planned in Georgia than almost any other state. So Georgia Power, the largest electric utility in the state? It’s building five new methane gas burning power plants to generate the massive amounts of power required by these data centers. Which the Southern Environmental Law Center estimated could ultimately cost customers fifty to sixty billion dollars over the life of the facilities.And Inside Climate News reported it could produce almost 14 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent annually — upping the state’s total annual emissions by more than 13 percent.
And this is something that’s happening all across the country thanks to soaring energy demand driven by data centers. Right, in 2024, data centers already accounted for more than four percent of the nation’s total electricity use — roughly the same as the entire country of Pakistan.
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Produced by: Cory Ray, Philip DeFranco
Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry
Art Department: William Crespo
Writing/Research: Jared Paolino, Philip DeFranco
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#USA #America #datacenters
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