Donna King: Don’t let fear drive the data center debate
This opinion piece argues that the debate around data center growth in North Carolina is driven by fear and misinformation, particularly regarding water and electricity consumption. It highlights that over 30 local governments in the state, including Charlotte, have imposed temporary data center moratoriums. The author advocates for fact-based evaluation and predictable rules to guide future development rather than hysteria.
Donna King, editor in chief for the Carolina Journal, asserts that the burgeoning opposition to data centers in North Carolina is fueled by "near hysteria" and misinformation, rather than objective facts. Citing a poll showing 75% of Americans oppose a data center near their homes, King points to diverse, often conflicting, reasons for the backlash, ranging from associations with "woke" ideology and "Big Tech" to concerns about water use, noise, and aesthetics. She suggests this opposition may serve as a proxy for broader societal discomfort with artificial intelligence and highlights the irony that many criticisms are spread via the very computing infrastructure they oppose.
King also raises the possibility of foreign influence, noting OpenAI's identification of a China-origin group generating online content critical of US data centers, implying this could be an effort to slow America's AI infrastructure development. This backlash is evident in North Carolina, where more than 30 local governments, including Charlotte, have reportedly imposed temporary moratoriums on data center development between February and July 2026, which King warns could lead to lost investment.
Addressing specific concerns, King refutes exaggerated claims about data center water usage, explaining that actual consumption is often far less than permitted maximums and that facilities utilize various efficient cooling technologies, some of which, like Google's air cooling in Mesa, Arizona, are adapted for local scarcity. Knud Berthelsen, an AI expert from Tulane University, corroborates this, emphasizing data centers' efficiency and the non-polluting nature of their water use. King also suggests that issues like noise and visibility can be mitigated through standard local regulations on setbacks, sound levels, and landscaping.
Ultimately, King advocates for critical thinking to guide North Carolina's approach to data centers, urging communities to evaluate projects based on factual local effects, infrastructure capacity, and economic sense without relying on taxpayer subsidies or imposing special penalties. She calls for fair and predictable rules to welcome future infrastructure rather than succumbing to online hysteria.