An interactive map tracking data center construction and AI policy, built by Isabelle Reksopuro.
When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn't initially know what to believe. "There's a lot of misinformation about data centers," she said. "Google has denied taking that land."
Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, "and Google is just a big, unnamed power user." The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood's watershed to meet municipal needs as its population - 16,010 as of the 2020 census - …
Read the full story at The Verge.
Over 70 percent of Americans oppose AI data center construction in their area, according to a new Gallup survey. Just seven percent said they were "strongly" in favor of new data centers. According to Gallup, data centers are so strongly disliked that Americans would prefer to live near a nuclear power plant than a data center - even at its peak, opposition to nuclear power plant construction topped out at 63 percent.
Gallup's data is based on a March 2026 survey of 1,000 randomly-selected American adults in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, along with an April 2026 survey of 2,054 adults "who are members of the Gallup Panel." …
Read the full story at The Verge.
Data centers' closed loop cooling systems promise significant water savings and energy efficiency improvements.
The post Asher Genoot: AI demand is just beginning, Honeydade’s multi-technology infrastructure strategy, and the role of data centers in reducing energy prices | The Pomp Podcast appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
At its peak, the Androscoggin paper mill in Jay, Maine, a rural town about 67 miles northwest of Portland, employed about 1,500 people - until a pulp digester exploded in 2020, forcing the mill to close permanently.
In 2023, the 1.4 million-square-foot facility was purchased through a joint venture by JGT2 Redevelopment and a number of other holding and capital companies. The project is led by developer Tony McDonald. Over the next three years, McDonald and his team broke down the mill's machinery and shipped it to Pakistan, and worked to clean up the industrial site for resale. That resale agreement was finalized earlier this year, accord …
Read the full story at The Verge.
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While residents of Fayette County, Georgia were being told to conserve water during a state-declared drought emergency, a massive data center next door was gulping down nearly 30 million gallons of the stuff without a working meter, and without paying a dime. The facility in question belongs to Quality Technology Services, better known as QTS, which is owned by private equity giant Blackstone. The company’s Project Excalibur development consumed an estimated 29 to 30 million gallons of unmetered water over a 15-month construction period. When the county finally caught the issue and ran the numbers, QTS owed a grand total of $147,474 in retroactive charges. That works out to roughly $0.005 per gallon, a rate significantly lower than what local residents pay for their own water. A metering failure during a drought The oversight wasn’t malicious hacking or
The incident highlights the need for robust infrastructure oversight, especially as data centers expand, to prevent resource mismanagement.
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Days after a township meeting ended with police forcibly removing a speaker, Andover Township officials announced they plan to ban all data centers — including those that fuel AI.
