A national day of protest against data centers is planned across the U.S. for July 18, as community backlash over the development of artificial intelligence (AI) centers continues to grow.

Humans First, a conservative advocacy group, says the demonstrations are intended to pressure local, state and federal officials to protect communities from rising utility costs, water demand, noise, land-use changes and what it describes as national security risks tied to rapid AI expansion.

Maps Show 40 Cities Taking Stand Against AI Data Centers Draining Resources.

No protests scheduled in Tennessee. Nashvillian's are fighting against a data center next to the Nashville Zoo.

AI Bubble Burst: Meta Admits 'Excess Compute Capacity.

Meta has to monetize this excess capacity - and that's why Meta is forced to enter the cloud computing business, directly competing with Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and also neocloud companies.

Meta, like SpaceX, looks to turn excess AI compute into cash

Meta’s decision to sell off excess compute comes weeks after SpaceX, via xAI, announced similar plans. In early May, SpaceX signed a deal with Anthropic to buy out all of the compute capacity at SpaceX’s Colossus 1 data center. SpaceX has signed similar leases since with Google and Reflection AI.

Could this mean there is not the demand for data centers as expected?

AI Data Centers & Our Communities
An initiative by Erin Brockovich · Environmental Advocate

"The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.

I am watching as YOU, the communities show up and speak out. In the famous words of Mark Twain … “The secret of getting ahead is getting started,” so let’s go!

— Erin"

Knox County Mayor won't sign county commission’s data center moratorium.

“Whether we like it or not, data centers have become a necessary part of our everyday life. I’m recording this video on my smartphone. You’re likely streaming it on a smartphone, tablet, or computer. That entire process requires data centers.”

For years we've been performing those specific activities without the many new proposed AI data centers.

TVA considering rate changes due to data centers

As discussions of data centers that require high power loads continue to develop, the Tennessee Valley Authority is considering changing its rates in a way to accommodate the growing demands without placing undue cost increases on residents.
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In May, 2026, the TVA shared a letter with 6 News that it sent to local power companies in February to begin the rate-changing process. The utility provider explained that it has continued to have frequent discussions with those local power companies and other customers about the proposed changes, and the TVA will be proposing actions for implementation to its board of directors in August at the earliest.
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TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks explained that in the last year, data centers made up around 18% of the TVA’s overall industrial load, and that number is expected to double by the year 2030.
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if it approved all of the data centers interested in coming to East Tennessee, there would be an increased power demand of 11,000 megawatts.
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According to KUB’s website, there are currently three data centers in its service area that have a range of energy usage. The largest of those data centers is contracted to use up to 73 megawatts of power...

From my research,
73 megawatts powers approximately 45,000 homes

11,000 megawatts powers approximately 5-6 million homes in the South or nearly 10 million in the Northeast

More needs to be done to rein in power consumption by these new "data centers." Then there is the noise problem and possible air pollution and water usage issues. Are they even that necessary?

The Knox County Commission voted to approve a proposed resolution aimed at regulating data centers, impacting their location, design and operational requirements.

There are already "three data centers, two in Knox County... a smaller one located in Downtown Knoxville on Summit Hill"... A "larger center has a contracted demand of around 70 megawatts as compared to one of the KUB's big users, UT Medical Center, which uses 12 to 15 megawatts."

Oh No The Capital Allocation System Allocated Capital Badly Again

Large banks including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and SMBC are looking to offload risks linked to a glut of debt related to AI data centres, as they reach financing limits, the Financial Times reported.
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Banks are reportedly approaching risk limits that restrict their exposure to individual borrowers or sectors, and are seeking to free up their balance sheets for further lending.

Brings back fond memories of the 1980s savings and loan crisis and the 2008 financial crisis.

Yeehaw!

Seven bills introduced to control data center uncontrolled usage of water, electricity, and fuel. Only one bill passed, stipulating that the owners of data centers (requiring at least 50 megawatts of power) must pay for any infrastructure upgrades needed to produce the electricity that the data center demands.

Tennessee lawmakers this year introduced seven bills aiming to set up guardrails for data centers in the state, but only one crossed the finish line.

Data centers house the computers, networking equipment and cooling systems used to manage digital data. As data centers proliferate across the nation and electricity demand rises, some states have taken steps to control the resource-intensive industry’s impact on their infrastructure.

Not Tennessee. The majority of our elected representatives don't seem to care about rising electricity costs, air pollution, or strains on water usage. Why would they? They don't care about public schools, Healthcare, or even if the less fortunate have food. Bah.

Excessive use of limited resources. Yes that puts us in danger.

Developers plan to build six sprawling data center campuses in Archbald, Pennsylvania, covering about 14 percent of the town’s land. Residents are fighting back. A town of 7,000 planned so many data centers, it’s like adding 51 Walmarts.
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...as word began circulating last year about borough council zoning changes to allow for the development, residents rebelled and have launched one of the most contentious grassroots campaigns in local history. They are organizing on social media, overwhelming community meetings and calling for the ouster of some key local officials.

‘Hyperscale’ data center project in Utah — expected to generate and consume more power than entire state — nears final approval.
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Still, questions remain about the broader impact. Experts emphasize that water use tied to electricity generation often overlooked can be substantial.

>em>“It’s great that we’re seeing less water use at the data center itself,” Hungerford added. “But we have to follow it upstream and ask what water use looks like in terms of power generation.”

Transparency has also been a concern. A nearby data center built in 2018 is not required to disclose its water usage, leaving gaps in public knowledge. That could change going forward.

Three Democratic US senators announced on Tuesday that they are investigating whether big tech companies are passing the soaring utility costs of “energy-guzzling” data centers on to ordinary Americans.

...they were alarmed by reports that these data centers caused residential electricity bills to “skyrocket”. Regions with significant data center activity have already endured price increases by as much as 267% over the past five years, the three lawmakers wrote. According to the Energy Information Administration, a federal agency, the average cost of a US family’s electricity bill had risen 7% year-over-year as of September.
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They also inquired about the tax deductions or other financial incentives these companies received from state and local governments, as well as payments they made to lobbyists and consultants to advocate for the construction of data centers. They requested a response no later than 12 January.
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A Cornell study published last month in Nature Sustainability found that data centers could annually consume as much water as 6 million-10 million Americans and emit as much carbon dioxide as 5m-10m cars.

The scrutiny arrives when 70% of US households have seen their electricity costs rise over the past year, with many blaming it on the energy-demands from AI, according to a recent survey. In some cases, local residents have been protesting incoming AI data centers over the environmental impact, potential pollution, and land seizure attempts.

With the explosive growth of Big Tech’s data centers threatening to overload U.S. electricity grids, policymakers are taking a hard look at a tough-love solution: bumping the energy-hungry data centers off grids during power emergencies.
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Grid operators in Texas, the Great Plains states and the mid-Atlantic region have produced eye-popping projections showing that electricity demand in the coming years will spike, largely due to data centers.
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The proposals are cropping up at a time when electricity bills nationally are rising fast — twice the rate of inflation, according to federal data — and growing evidence suggests that the bills of some regular Americans are rising to subsidize the gargantuan energy needs of Big Tech.
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“Data center load has the potential to overwhelm the grid, and I think it is on its way to doing that,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid.

70% of rising electricity cost from data centers
Tennessee in top 10 states with electricity rate increases

Our government representatives are not doing a good of representing/protecting citizens. Be more informed when it comes time to vote.

Louisiana Public Service Commissioners voted four to one to approve Entergy’s three new gas plants to power Meta’s largest-ever data center coming to Northeast Louisiana.
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The 70 football field-sized AI powerhouse in Richland Parish will need around 2,500 megawatts of power. The facility will use roughly three times as much electricity as the entire city of New Orleans annually, according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

Wasteful, wasteful, wasteful.

Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog for the mid-Atlantic grid, produced research in June showing that 70% — or $9.3 billion — of last year’s increased electricity cost was the result of data center demand.

Yikes! Do you think Tennessee would try to make data centers pay their fair share? Nah.

An artificial intelligence data center that would use more electricity than every home in Wyoming combined before expanding to as much as five times that size will be built soon near Cheyenne, according to the city’s mayor.
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this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources...

I wonder how these data centers affect residential electricity prices. As mentioned in a previous post, why is Tennessee in the top 10 states with electricity rate increases?

With the increase in energy costs, residential insurance, and food, will any middle income citizen this new society?

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are fighting a proposal by an Ohio power company to significantly increase the upfront energy costs they’ll pay for their data centers...

American Electric Power Ohio said in filings that the tariff increase was needed to prevent new infrastructure costs from being passed on to other customers such as households and businesses if the tech industry should fail to follow through on its ambitious, energy-intensive plans.

The power company said projected energy demand in central Ohio forced it to stop approving new data center deals there last year while it figured out how to pay for the new transmission lines and additional infrastructure they would require.

The energy demands of data centers have created similar concerns in other hot spots such as Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Maricopa County, Ariz., leaving experts concerned that the U.S. power grid may not be capable of dealing with the combined needs of the green energy transition and the computing boom that artificial intelligence companies say is coming.

As has been said here before, "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an energy hog. "Should the Bitcoin and AI companies be allowed to use so much of our energy resources? Will our electricity rates go up in order to support these efforts?"