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Communities are rising up against data centers — and winning

The Verge · Justine Calma · last updated

If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats came together on in 2025 — at least at the local level — it was to stop big, energy-hungry data center projects.

For communities sick of rising electricity bills and pollution from power plants, data centers have become an obvious target. Fights against new data centers surged this year as grassroots groups, voters, and local lawmakers demanded more accountability from developers. Already, they’ve managed to block or stall tens of billions of dollars’ worth of potential investment in proposed data centers. And they’re not letting up.

“We expect that opposition is going to keep growing,” says …

 

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