2026 Data Center Rejections Hit 275

The backlash continues, and no, the opponents aren’t Luddites.

In June, protesters in East Fishkill, New York gathered to show their opposition to data centers. Hours later, East Fishkill’s Town Board adopted a three-year moratorium on data centers. Credit: WAMC.org/Elias Guerra

The legacy media has woken up to the backlash against data centers. Unfortunately, much of the analysis misses the mark. Last month, a conservative writer published a piece in the New York Post in which he claimed that “The effective voices against data centers, after all, are the same Luddites who’ve spread environmental apocalypticism to stop modernization projects such as pipelines and power plants and fracking.”

A few days later, the New York Times ran an op-ed that was headlined, “The Environmental Case Against Data Centers Is Misguided,” in which the writer claimed to “empathize with the environmental opposition to data center construction, but the arguments are shakier than they seem.” (The writer completely ignored the serious problem of noise pollution, among other things.)

While pundits would like to dismiss the opposition, the numbers don’t lie. A poll published last week by Fox News found that “by a 40-point margin, voters opposed data centers in their area to support artificial intelligence.”

As I have explained in my previous coverage of this issue — see here, here, here, here, and here — as well as in our short documentary, “The Data Center Backlash,” the opposition to data centers is similar to what I have seen in my coverage of the opposition to Big Solar and Big Wind projects. As I explained in May, in “Top 10 Reasons Why Communities Are Fighting Data Centers,” the simple truth is that people “all across the US and around the world are fighting data centers because these projects are not providing sufficient value to their communities.”

That fact helps explain why last week, Willie Nelson declared on Instagram that “The last thing we need is a loud, water-thieving, light-polluting, data center anywhere near our town.” Willie’s comments provide further proof that what we are seeing is a cultural backlash against Big Tech. That’s why I’ve been covering the issue so closely. Energy policy and land-use policy are two sides of the same coin. Energy policy (data centers are an example of energy policy) determines land-use policy and vice versa. Further, the backlash against Big Tech reflects deep anger in the American electorate. As one Democratic strategist told the Wall Street Journal last week in an article about the rise of the far-left socialists, “Voters are pissed off.”

Over the past few weeks, Jacob and I have been combing through news articles and other outlets to make sure we have the latest figures. Here they are: Since January 1, 2026, we have documented 275 bans, rejections, restrictions, or moratoriums on data centers in the US. For comparison, there were 49 rejections in all of 2025. All of these rejections are documented in the Data Center Rejection Database, which is the only free, online, searchable database of its kind.

I’ll end by reiterating a few points. First, I have no dog in this fight. I have been reporting on data centers and power demand for more than 25 years. I’m continuing my coverage because the growth of data centers and AI involves many of the topics I’ve been focused on for years, including land-use conflicts, electricity demand, power generation, and the rise of Big Tech.

Second, I use AI nearly every day. It’s amazing.

Finally, here’s a prediction: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run for president in 2028 and a key part of her platform will be opposition to data centers, Big Tech, and AI.

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