How to find the most up-to-date news on Indy area data centers

This column is part of the Indianapolis Public Editor project, a pilot program designed to test whether the presence of a public editor who analyzes local coverage can elevate audience trust in journalism and promote media literacy.

Data centers – those massive, energy-hogging warehouses spreading across the country – are unifying residents across the political spectrum. No one wants them in their communities. The not-in-my-backyard sentiment is spreading as fast as the proposed developments.

The Indianapolis area is rife with such projects, proposed by tech companies attracted to our region by tax incentives, cheap land and low-cost utilities to support their infrastructure.

These centers are hard to track. They arrive in our communities as land purchases, zoning changes and construction permits filed by shell companies fronting for famous Silicon Valley firms like Amazon Web Services, Anthropic or Meta. Politicians and government officials sometimes sign non-disclosure agreements as they start negotiations.