New Orleans       The explosive growth of data centers due to the big tech overlords racing each other to spend trillions is starting to run into a wall, despite what I’m sure they thought was a good plan to hijack local governments in a pact at “mum’s the word” secrecy with the promise of development.  As a columnist in the Washington Post notes, in many cases they are now reaping the whirlwind,

Across the country, the explosion of data centers — driven by a surge in artificial intelligence demand — has created controversy because of environmental concerns, utility issues and a lack of transparency mixed with misunderstandings among residents, corporate investors and local leaders. There are about 3,000 data centers in the United States, with roughly 1,500 more under development.

I’ve ranted about this before, but it is simply amazing that elected, public officials have been conned by so many data developers and the promises of big tech that they are willing to keep plans for these operations a secret from their own citizens or join what are in fact disinformation campaigns orchestrated by the developers.  What roused the ire of the Post’s Kathleen Parker was the shenanigans in South Carolina, as she writes,

The Spartanburg data center, which is under construction and slated to begin operations in the third quarter of this year, arrived with hardly anyone’s notice until trees along South Pine Street were mowed down and heavy equipment started rolling in. The lack of awareness was no accident. Local officials who lured the project to Spartanburg County publicly referred to it as “Project MOC-1” and characterized it as a “high-performance computing center.” This subterfuge is a classic example of good ol’ boy dodging that has come back to bite local officials where they sit. MOC-1 was the work of NorthMark Strategies, a New York investment firm that is developing the data center through its subsidiary, Valara Holdings. Thanks to the Spartanburg County Council’s complicity in protecting the project until it was finalized, it took a while for people to figure things out.

In a lame tradeoff for 27, yes, only 27, permanent jobs, the council gave up quite a few goodies:

The February 2025 agreement between NorthMark and the county included a 40-year fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement that lowered the property assessment ratio for Valara Holdings to 4 percent. The deal also included other tax credits.

Of course, this sneak-center will have all of the usual problems of noise, pollution, and excessive use of water and energy, like all of the rest, but this subterfuge business model makes it clear that the developers for all of their lies, know these centers are trouble.

Maybe others are catching on as well.  The usually asleep at the switch head of the Department of Energy ordered data centers to go to backup power now so that household air conditioners wouldn’t be pushed off the grid.  Other reports have zinged the big tech owners of data centers about their misdirection on the use of water for example.  Where Meta also included water used in the energy generation for their data centers, Google and others in their sustainability reports restricted their water usage report to just what the physical center uses, ignoring how much went into power generation.

At this point, how could anyone be surprised that communities are rising up everywhere to declare moratoriums or ban data centers.  As PT Barnum was reported saying, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.”  On data centers, that’s where the public is now – and not ready to be fooled again.