75% now oppose local AI data centers

A Heatmap Pro poll of 2,045 registered voters found 75% would oppose a new data center near where they live, up from roughly 42% last August; 61% now say they would strongly oppose one, according to Heatmap’s polling report. The same survey found the shift across parties and geography, while more than 530 U.S. counties and municipalities have restricted or banned construction. Developers should treat community consent and ratepayer protection as schedule-critical infrastructure, not a communications afterthought, alongside the archive’s audit of Texas’s 474 GW data-center queue.